


Just Keep Swimming

by shtein96



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer, One Direction (Band), Union J (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - School, Bullying, Coming Out, Eating Disorders, F/M, I have no idea, M/M, Self-Harm, and loads more but I don't wanna write it all, norway is shit, ofc it involves dirty moments
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-03-05 01:53:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 35,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3100706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shtein96/pseuds/shtein96
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stan has just moved to England from Norway, after his parents sent him away. "You need to learn how to be a real man, and there's no better place". "Sure", was all Stan answered them. He knew they only wanted to get rid off him. So he packed his suitcase and left only a couple of days later. </p><p>And now Stan was standing infront of Eastern Sherwood Boarding School, not sure if he wanted to enter or not. These next couple of years is going to be a bloody nightmare.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Cover Your Eyes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/726082) by [floralnarry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/floralnarry/pseuds/floralnarry). 



> Please don't judge my english, as it's not my native language (and sometimes I may not care about it, bc I just want to write my heart out). Please do comment your thoughts and opinions as I update. I know I got another story with this title, but I like it so much. And I may be using my own words like "fabmazing" in this story, but you'll survive. If you want, follow me on twitter: @SimplyJustStian
> 
> A bit inspired by http://archiveofourown.org/works/726082/chapters/1347551 (Cover Your Eyes)

The sky are grey filled with clouds, and it’s pouring outside. The wind is quite chilly. A typical British day of weather. Nothing Stan couldn’t handle though, he was a bloody Norwegian after all. He was even a northern lad. He is used to horrendous weather, and loads of snow and bloody chilly winters (we’re talking -20 to -30 degrees for weeks).

The large front door Stan is facing, reminds him more of the entrance of Hogwarts than to a school’s entrance. Old and all wooden-made with plenty of patterns, that looked hand-made, and as mentioned huge. The door isn’t huge, it is big ass enormous. Who the heck went to school here, giants or normal human beings?

Stan snapped out of his trance, as he realised he had to actually enter this old door. He had to embrace the fact that he was going to spend a lot of time in this place the next couple of years. He really didn’t want to, he absolutely did not want to be here. The only positive thing that was going to come out of all this, was the fact he didn’t need to see his family every day. And that was actually one of the greatest things ever, Stan thought to himself. As he entered the door, he was stunned by the large hallway. Okay, this had to be Hogwarts, not Eastern Sherwood Boarding School. The hallway even had five chandeliers, one large in the middle with four smaller ones surrounding it.

He managed to find his way to the headmaster’s office, after taking more than his shares of wrong turns. It was not that difficult to find actually, it was upstairs, in the second floor in main building, to the right and through the first door on the left side, then the third door down that hallway. He did just not know where the hell to start looking, so he was going left, right, up, down and back to the hallway. Here he had discovered a sign that said where the most important “house attractions” were located. 

His new headmaster did not seem as stuck up in her head as his last one was. She seemed much more strict, which could either mean something positive or something negative. She would either have respect and control, which would lead to a good school environment, or she would be a total bitch that hated everyone and only was headmaster so she could boss people around. Stan really hoped that the first option was the reality. He could just not stand another screwed up, one-minded control freak as his headmaster.  
When he left the office, he had loads of paper with information about which dorm he was going to live in, where the cantine, the showers, the library, the study hall and others important (or not-that-important) things were located, a time schedule for his classes, the name of his teachers, the school rules and yadayadayada.

He was going to share a dorm with a fella called Harry Edward Styles, at least that was the name he got written on his info sheet. He was really hoping this Harry-lad was nice and likeable. He could not even imagine having to sharing room with some bloody annoying pest. His fingers were crossed and he was praying to everything he did actually not believed in. 

When he arrived at the door with the nametag “Harry Edward Styles” on it, Stan took a deep breath. It was not because his room was freaking at the end of the corridor in the fifth floor, but because he had to talk to someone, and this someone would be a person he was going to see a lot over the upcoming years. Maybe he was going to be lucky, maybe Harry wasn’t even in the room when he entered it. Maybe he had moved out or something, or maybe he had a special gal he visited a lot. Probably not, but hey, it is allowed to have wishes, right? 

As he opened the door, a curly haired boy with emerald green eyes, jumped a little, probably a bit surprised. He stared for a long time, while looking confused and a bit uncomfortable, as he just was sitting in his underwear. How could this be a more awkward first meeting with someone? Oh, okay, he didn’t want to think about that.  
“Who are you mate?” the other lad finally said, still looking a bit confused and startled. That wasn’t that weird really, he probably was used to live alone in this dorm, and he was not used to some random strange bloke walking right into his room. Before Stan managed to answer the question, Harry spoke again: “Oh, you’re Stan right? You’re my new roommate, aren’t you?”

Stan only nodded his head shyly, just enough for the other boy to understand that this was correct. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet ya, I am Harry, Harry Edward Styles, but just call me Harry.” Stan was arguing with himself whether to say something back or not. If he didn’t, the other lad may think he was some weirdo or something. But… if he did say something, what was he going say? He would probably say something stupid and Harry would think he was a weirdo anyway. “It’s nice meeting ya too, thank you.”

Harry looked at Stan a little more, before saying “You can take this part of the room, just let me take my stuff. Sorry for the mess, I’m not a massive fan of cleaning really.” Harry took his clothes, a guitar and some other random stuff. A guitar, bloody brilliant. Stan loved playing the guitar and he loved song writing, but he never ever shared his songs with anybody, and he never played the guitar and he defiantly never sang in front of anybody. Not his family (which he hated), not his friends (which he really didn’t have) and never in a billion years would he do it in front of some stranger. 

The room was not the biggest nor was it that small. It was kind of cosy actually, and Stan thought he could not really expect anything more. The room was filled with two one-person beds, two small desks that were facing each other (probably for homework), a sink by the door with a mirror and a two-floor shelf, with a closet at the foot end of each bed. There were also a bathroom without a shower (because they had shower areas for each gender in the different years. So he had to shower in the shower area for the boys in Fourth Grade). And there were all the stuff that Stan assumed belonged to Harry. 

Stan was not a cleany person himself, it was not like he was been bitten by a clean-virus, but when he shared a room with someone else or he visited, he seemed to clean up and decorate and all that stuff. Would he do that now? He was not sure, let the time show.

Stan started unpacking one of his suitcases. Yes, he brought two, one for clothes and one for shoes. He also brought a messenger bag and a backpack, both filled with different of Stan’s belongings. He owned loads of things, clothes and shoes, and he was not ashamed to admit it. He liked to shop when he was sad, to take his mind of the reality. He shopped quite often actually, which was not a good thing. He was really wondering how he would survive without being able to shop freely, as he was used to. 

After a while, Harry spoke again. “So, did ya fetch a schedule for ya classes?” Stan handed Harry it, hoping he actually shared some classed with the British lad, because he did not know any people on this school, and he had to get to know Harry one time or another. It might could be having some classes together, he thought. “Oh, we’re having Spanish class together, as long as math and geography”. What, good news? Could Stan still actually experience that good news? At least, it was not bad news, and hopefully it could stay that way throughout the year. 

“Well, I’ve got to go to my history class now, but I suppose you are going the same direction. If I’m not totally off, you’re having English in ten minutes. Yeah, your English class is actually the room next to mine, so do you wanna join me? I guess you don’t know where most of the rooms are in this school, I could at least show you some of them.” 

Stan only nodded shyly once again, not sure if he should speak or not. He changed into a white, hipster t-shirt with the letters “LOS ANGELES” written, with stars and the space filling the letters, a knitted dark cardigan, a black pair of (really) skinny jeans, and his favourite pair of Converse (you know, the one with the Union Jack). 

He went to the sink, looked into mirror, fixed his quiff-ish hair. He looked like rubbish though. He looked like someone who just went three night without sleep, and as usual as a weird, nerdy, ugly looking lad. He really hated his look, especially his glasses, but he could not drop using them – because without them he could not see clear at all. He could use contacts, but Stan was always too lazy to use them. 

“Are you ready to head out?” Harry asked, very polite. Again, instead of speaking actual words, he just nodded shyly with his head. He was thinking that Harry would be annoyed by it or something by now, and this is not going to be a good day. He just went after the British bloke through the door, just as he had entered it – crossing his fingers for a miracle.

♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠

While walking through his classroom with Harry, the awkward silence dominated. Stan was not sure what to say, and he was quite the shy guy, and it seemed Harry didn’t know what to say either, and at the same being unsure about Stan – was he offended, annoyed or just tired? Harry did tell some random facts about the school though, like why the ceiling in the hallway had those stickers that looked like stars. It was a clever idea, or that was at least what their headmaster, came up with a few years ago. It was to symbolize the Eastern Sherwood Boarding School’s motto: “Never satisfied where you are, always reach for the stars”. Kind of stupid if you asked Stan, but whatever. 

“Well, I meet you here after class then, okay mate?” With a tiny “yeah sure”, the boys parted and headed towards each their classes. Well, now Stan was feeling very uncomfortable and insecure, as he was totally alone in a room filled with loud teenagers that he did not know at all. He didn’t even know who they were, like, not even a single name or fact. He took a seat in the back of the classroom and just tried to blend in. It would be a total nightmare if the teacher asked him to come up and introduce himself. That is probably going to happen, but again, a young lad is allowed to dream right?

“Hello class, please do settle down now.” Yeah, like it was just to speak soft and friendly to get this zoo to settle down. But for Stan’s surprise, the class was shutting up and taking their seats faster than himself on a Shoe-sale-day. Which is like crazy fast, Flash fast. “Oh, and I’m Mr. Bluebell, your English teacher. The reason I am telling this is” Wait for it, Stan thought “is because we got a new student joining us today. Why don’t you come up here and tell us something about yourself young mister?” And there it is.

While heading toward the front of the room, he tried to think about what to say, and at the same time as he was trying to walk normally and hopefully not everyone will hate him instantly. He felt every single pair of eyes burning at him, checking “the new kid” out. Was he looking okay, Stan wondered? Did he choose the right clothes, is his hair messed up, did he smell, did he look fat? All these questions and worries streaming through his head as he finally arrived at the front.

“Hello, I’m Stian Lindberg, but just call me Stan. Stian is a Norwegian name, and I am indeed from Norway. I’m from a tiny little place with only two thousand people or something, called Bardufoss and is located far up north. I have no British relatives nor do I have any English-speaking relatives, but we do learn English from 1st grade in Norway. Ehm…I am 16 years old.” 

“Hello Stan, very nice to meet you. I am quite certain that we will have a pleasant time together this year. Please take your seat again, and we’ll start today’s lesson. I really do think you all will like this lesson, because we are going to do a little project work. From today, you will get one week, until next Monday, to make a presentation. Now, before you all start complaining and being grumpy, you will be able to pick whatever topic you want, but nothing inappropriate of course. It could be about your cat or dog, it could be about yourself or about your favourite artist or band. The point in this is for you to practice giving a presentation, but also to feel safe speaking your own words in front of others, to become safe as a class and to show the rest of us something you might like, hate, are interested in, have done and etc.” 

This is like Stan’s least favourite task ever, but at the same time his defiantly favourite task ever. He has to talk in front of people about something he cares about, which he is terrified will destroy him. On the other hand, he doesn’t need to do that much research, if he picks a topic he is interested in. “And you are allowed to work in pairs, but you’ll need to work together well and choose a topic you both like. Are you working alone, you’ll have a 5 to 10 minute presentation, and as a pair you’ll have a 10 to 20 minute long presentation. That means that everyone is getting at least 5 minutes to speak.

Great, now he would be the only person to do this all by himself, like a total loser and loner. Okay, that was actually was he was, but Stan didn’t want to give that impression to his new classmates. He actually got the change to start all over again, with nobody knowing his past. Though he would probably destroy that chance really soon, like next week or sooner. Well, well, he was going to start on this project, so he wouldn’t be using his Sunday doing it in full panic. That was the usual tactic, starting the day before the due. 

One by one, the gals and blokes are starting to form duos, and some is even groups. Stan is guessing those are friends, and even though it is a pair work, they’ll all sit together and talk shit about everyone or whatever they use to talk about. Stan watched through the room, and he noticed a brown haired lad, looking quite well build. Probably after sports, because he looked very sporty. The other lad caught Stan looking, but neither broke it off. They just looked into each other’s eyes. The other boy had these clear ocean blue coloured eyes that sparkled, and they were quite deep. That is actually the most gorgeous eyes Stan ever saw, and he’s favourite eye colour had always been blue.

The other boy looked away after a bit, going back to his computer. His hair was messy, but at the same time, it looked organised. Organised mess, just like Stan’s room. He did not know why the other boy was so interesting, but he kept glancing his direction over, and over again. Sometimes he caught himself staring, which was weird, why would he be staring at this strange British lad? Stop that, he told himself more than enough times. That did not help for long though.

“Focus Stian, focus”. What should he pick? Anything about music, like guitar or a genre, or should he pick some of his favourite artists, like Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Cheryl Cole? What about Asking Alexandria or Sleeping With Sirens? Hmm, no that was too risky. What about Norway or his hometown? Naah, too boring and he wouldn’t remind himself of that shithole anyway. What about football? Yeah, he liked, may even loved, football and he was in the country where football was born after all. There were probably some of his classmates that loved football as well. Perfect. Maybe he could befriend one of those. This could be his chance.

He vanished from the reality for some moments, and he did not realise that a the class was over. They were able to work on the presentation on Thursday as well, the next time they had English. Stan had English on Wednesday’s and Friday’s too, but not with this class. He had to take some extra classes with English, since he moved here from a not-English speaking country. Ridiculous Stan thought, he was obsessed with the UK and Australia, and the US too, and he had been than for years. He practiced his English every day for over five years now. He thought he could enough English after that, in addition taking it for more than ten years in school. 

Just before he left the classroom, this strange boy had stopped to stare at him for some seconds. Stan found is quite weird, but he didn’t think about it any long, as he finished gathering his thing and left. As he said, Harry was waiting outside his classroom. “How was your first class mate?” How was it really? Not as bad as he hoped for, but he still had to introduce himself in front of everyone. “It went okay I guess. We already got a project due Monday, but it wasn’t that bad project.” Harry looked weird at him and he could not understand why. Did he have anything between his teeth, or was it something he said? 

“What is it? Why are you looking so funny at me? Do I have something in my teeth?” The other boy chuckled hard, before speaking: “No, no, mate, it is just…this is the most you have said at once since I met you. I didn’t know you had it in you” the other boy chuckling even harder. “You’re such a silly douche, I am just not the chatty type.” The other boy smiling, that turned into a grin. “I think you are quite the chatty type, I just think you’re shy and a bit socially awkward.” Usually that would totally destroy Stan’s day, but there were just something about the emerald green-eyed bloke that made Stan smile a little. The first smile since he came here. Harry was going to be a nice roommate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is, the first chapter omg! I am so excited, and I am enjoying writing this story so far. I would really appreciate your feedback, so please tell me what you think! 
> 
> I made Harry a year older, and Louis two years younger so all the characters could be in the same year. It is quite needy for my story (even though I just have some few, small ideas for the story. I just..write as I go along). 
> 
> And isn't it quite new to read this kinda story written by a guy? haha bc I haven't seen any lads that have written any fanfics for whether 1D or 5SOS (I am sure that they exist).
> 
> I did use a quite amount of time on this, like..I started writing between 2 and 3 AM, and I was finished at 8 AM
> 
> Okay then, loads of love - Stian xx


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan is starting to get some friends, and this brown-haired, ocean blue-eyed lad is staring at him. And Niall eats. Alot.

Stan’s stomach sounded like a thunderstorm combined with a room filled with forty children, his uncle on Christmas Eve (he always stuffed as much as possible, and then some, of the Christmas food into his tiny little body) and the world’s largest drill. In other words, he was hungry like he never had felt hunger before. He still got his science class before lunch break, where he once again did not know anybody. And once again, he had to introduce himself in front class.

Like in his English class, he felt all the eyes burning wholes in his body, judging him and making their opinion. As if it wasn’t enough do this twice in one day, he manage to stumble his feet this time. The class laughed, and did not stop. They giggled when Stan started talking, because his voice cracked a bit. “Hello, I am Stan, or Stian as my actually name is. It’s a typical name in Norway, where from. I come from a small town far up north, I am 18 years old and yeah.

Then a kid from the back row yelled “go back to Vikingland to your troll family, you freak”. The teacher, Mrs. Smith, did notice this comment, but she did not know how to react. I guess Mrs. Smith is the kind of teacher that doesn’t has respect and just tried to be nice, and not yell at her students. That is quite unusual for a boarding school teacher, but Stan did think that could be a good or a bad thing. In this case, it was a bad thing, because he started to feel sad, and even more insecure and less welcome than he already did. This day just went from being like a nightmare to being like Justin Bieber’s neighbour.

Stan took his seat and the class went. Mrs. Smith talked about their last project, which was about ecosystem. Luckily, they had the same subject back in Norway, so he won’t need to catch up on anything. He had attended to school back home for about a month and half, before his parents went on the coco train and sent him away. They start earlier in Norway than they do in here in the UK, so they haven’t had the time to have any other subject than the ecosystem.

“Oh, mr. Lindberg, why won’t you tell us what you about the ecosystem to the emperor penguin?” YES, that was a perfect question, because that was not only his favourite animal, but he did a sixteen pages long paper on the emperor penguin back home. He had not been concentrating on what Mrs. Smith had said so far this class after he introduced himself.

He told her about all the fish the penguin ate, the leopard seal and polar bear who ate the penguin and loads of random facts. Mrs. Smith seemed quite impressed by his knowledge. Like how the male penguin switch in being in the middle of a huge hatching group to keep warm, or like how the penguins use a swimming technique called  “dolphining” (not sure what is called in English actually). The rest of his classmates just stared at him, some rolled with eyes, other giggled, and one blonde bloke ate.

“Very, very good Stan, excellent!” It was not like he liked science or anything, it was quite the opposite. He was used to get top grades though, because he understood science, he only needed to do some reading. In general, Stan was pretty good at school, but he did not like school. He just realised that his classmates would think he was a school geek or a nerd who always read books and studied. The truth was, Stan could enjoy a book now and then, and when he was bored, it happened that he started reading totally random stuff on Wikipedia, and just click himself through tons of random facts.

The blonde bloke who ate, just took up another sandwich. Does he has an endless stomach or something, he has already had four. Why did Stan care? There was just something about this other lad, he seemed to be enjoying life and just… it didn’t seem like he cared about what other thought about him. So carefree. Stan wished he had that attitude, because he worries too much, and today he is worse. Or maybe Stan just was interested in the food, because he was so ding darn hungry.

When the class was over, Stan grabbed his things and rushed out to find Harry as fast as possible, because he could not go any longer without food. While he waited at the spot he agreed to meet up with Harry, the blondy stopped in front him, now with a chocolate bar. Gee, this kid could probably eat the amount food as his uncle, but he would still feel hungry. Why is he stopping, what does he wants? Make fun of Stan? It will happen soon or later.

“Hello there mate, what are you up to?” What is this? Is he actually going to be nice, or is this sarcastically bullying, like Stan know plenty about? Well, he hopep for the first one, but Stan has not been the luckiest lad today with his wished. “Well, I’m just waiting for my roommate Harry, so we could head to the cantina together.” The other boy’s eyes widen and a grin appeared on his face. “You aren’t talking about Harry Styles by any chance are you?” Stan just nodded, quite confused and curious why that was relevant. “Well, then I’ll just wait here with you. You see, Harry and me, are best friends. How fun is it that you are his new roomie, and you are in my science class?”

“Hiya Harry!” Niall was not speaking, he was yelling or yodelling of some sorts. “Hello Niall, I see you have met my new roommate, Stan.” Harry turned his head to Stan and looked at him a bit concerned. “Did he annoy you to death with his talking, bad jokes or eating?” Stan just nodded as an answer for no. “This got to be a new record Niall, you haven’t annoyed a new person after a whole class together, and then some time after that? Congrats”. Niall chuckled while mumbling “you jerk”. They all headed towards the cantina.

♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠

“Finally, food. If I would have to wait a second longer, this school would turn into The Hunger Games. I would have killed for food.” That made the other two lads laugh. Harry grinned to himself, but Stan did not notice. Stan had started to feel a bit more comfortable and was talking and, now joking (though he was not sure that he actually did joke).

Stan was the first of the mates to get his food, so he started to look for a free table for them to sit at. The cantina was filled with hundreds of strange people who Stan had never seen in his life. At his last school, the cantina was extremely small (but cosy), and the school only had like between hundred to hundred and twenty people. In this cantina alone, there were at least three hundred, and this was only a minor part of the student mass.

At a table, sitting with what looked like sports jocks, that ocean blue-eyed lad was sitting. He was looking at Stan, almost as he was staring at him. He snapped out of it when one of his mates tried to communicate with him. That was weird, Stan thought to himself. Whatever. Harry and Niall was already heading towards a table. At the table there were sitting four gals and three lads. Stan guessed this had to be Harry’s and Niall’s friends. Well, they would either thin Stan was a freak (most probably the case), or they would ask tons of question.

“Hi Ha and Ni” the one girl said. The girl had brown long hair, and brown eyes. She was wearing a white, simple but nice top along with some fashionable dark skinny jeans. The girl did also have a neckless, which was almost as beautiful as the girl herself was. Because she was really, really pretty, no one could deny that. Her name was Malin. Malin’s best friend, also a really pretty girl, a dark blonde haired gal. She was named Ina and was wearing a black top with a gorgeous knitted jacket-thingy.

The other two gals, also more pretty than most girls he knew, was named Erika and Tayla. Stan thought they looked really close, by just looking at their way of communicating with each other. The lads were named Liam, Zayn and Michael. They looked like they belonged with the popular kids, so they would probably hate Stan, as he not look like he belonged with them. This day is going from being like Bieber’s neighbour, to being at a Isac Elliot concert.

“Hello there mate, who are you?” Michael asked Stan, while looking confused and suspicious, like Stan was a wanted man or something. “And how do you know this fella?” turning his head to Harry and Niall, like they had done something wrong bringing Stan along. “This is Stan Lindberg, he is from Norway and just transferred here. He is my new roommate, and he’s taking science with Niall.”

The gang all looked at Stan, like they were judging him, whether he was accepted or denied to join the group. He felt like he wasn’t a human being, but some kind of equipment or accessories. But they all nodded and smiled a little, so they all took a seat. Stan didn’t know what to say, neither did he know if he wanted to say anything at all. He just wanted to eat a little, and then be for himself a bit.

“I thought you said you were hungry mate, like that you would kill for food. You’re looking like you’ve just eaten three elephant and a pizza. Are you ill?” Harry asked, sounding a bit concerned. He obviously wasn’t, nobody had ever been concerned about Stan before, and he barely knew this guy. Harry was right though, he was… is hungry, but he had eaten more than he usual did already. “I suppose I was not that hungry after all.” Harry just looked suspiciously at him, with concernedness in his eyes.

Niall on the other hand looked shocked at Stan. “How can you eat that little, are you even human?” Niall had food enough for a family on his plate, and this was even his second helping. 

The first helping was enough to everyone in Stan’s hometown, and then some. He only shrugged his shoulders as an answer. “You guys should have heard him in science class, he slayed it. He nailed Mrs. Smith’s question. You are a genius or something; you can help me this year.” The rest of gang didn’t seem that interested, and they just continued their many convos that happened across the table.

Stan learned that Liam and Zayn were roommates, in the floor below his and Harry’s dorm. Tayla and Erika shared a room in the fifth floor of girl’s building, and Malin and Ina shared room in the third floor. Michael shared a dorm with a fella named Luke, while two other of their friends, Ashton and Josh, shared a room in the third floor in another building. He also learned that there were some other lads called George, “JJ”, Calum and Jaymi who were part of their gang, was outside playing a game of footie.

Stan leaved the table, saying he had to go to the loo, and said he would meet up with Harry and Josh for their Spanish class. He was happy that he finally knew someone in of his classes, it would not be as bad as it would been without them. Spanish was not his favourite class, nor was it his least favourite. It depended A LOT on the teacher. Ms. Carmer was an old, half-Spanish-British who liked to only speak in Spanish. Great, exactly what he did not want. Then he had to actually concentrate in class, and he couldn’t just daydream while listening barely with one of his ears. 

He tried his best to concentrate, but he was feeling dizzy, as he always did after he ate. He did manage to introduce himself properly in Spanish, with impressing his teacher and his fellow classmates. He did actually raise his hand a couple of times in the beginning of the class, just so Ms. Carmer would ask him later, just because he had been one of the “I don’t give a fuck about you or this shitty class, so I won’t raise my hand”. A clever tactic he had used for years now, which allowed him to daydream a bit for the rest of his class.

He noticed a familiar pair of eyes looking him once again. These ocean blue eyes had been looking him quite a lot this day, more than any other pair of eyes had ever looked at him (or at least as he had noticed been looking at him). Was he that ugly? He guessed he was, but it was used to it. He had worked for years to change it, at least a little. So far, he only has gotten worse, but he was still trying every day. He still got his fair share of critical comments about it, but he was used to that as well. 

There was just something about this boy, but Stan could not put his finger on it. He felt he just had to look at him, and he did that quite often. He was just a normal lad, right? He had never spoken a word to him, and would probably never do that in the closest future either. He should just forget about it, but he didn’t seem to able to. Weird. Anyway, this class was over in few moments and he would probably just meet up with Liam, Niall and that Jaymi kid. They all had not one, not two, but three classes in a row with math.

He sat next to Liam and Niall, with Jaymi just behind them. They seemed to struggle with the most easy math problems, Niall more than Jaymi, and Jaymi more than Liam. Liam was not that bad at math, but Stan thought he wasn’t the best either. So he helped a lot, because he had finished his math problems and the extra tasks after the first hour. With two hours left to kill, he had nothing better to do. He liked to help other people too, so he did really not mind at all.

“I am so happy that you transferred here, because you’re just as good as Mr. Clearwood at math, and you are fifteen times better than him to explain. I actually understand this bullshit, and I have never understood math in my entire life.” Niall seemed overexcited and surprised, and quite thankful as well. So did Jaymi and Liam, which did not as much help as Niall, but they still asked plenty enough questions. 

“Just wait to Harry get to know how amazing you are at math, he struggles a lot too.” Jaymi sounded so sure, and Liam nodded in agreement. Harry was not in class, because he had to attend an appointment with his doctor. Harry had been quite ill the last couple of weeks, and he was going to check on his improvement. Stan thought to himself that he could help Harry catch up on what he missed in today’s class.

Mr. Clearwood said that the students who had finished could hand in their work for grading (even though they were able to work together), and leave early from class. It was still a whole hour left of math. THANK YOU Stan thought loudly and grateful in his mind. The funny thing was that only he, Niall, Liam and Jaymi were finished already. Mr. Clearwood looked with a suspicious look on the lads, especially Niall and Jaymi.

He made them do another math problem, which was similar to the ones they had done, to check they understood it themselves. He wanted to make sure they just wrote of Liam or Stan, he wanted them to actual know it. Annoying, but a good thing for a teacher to do – to care that his students learn and understand. For his surprise, both Niall and Jaymi solved the tasks on only few seconds, and they all left.

♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠

The four lads was chilling in Stan and Harry’s room, when the curly haired boy walked through the door. Much to his surprise, Niall, Jaymi and Liam all were doing homework, while Stan unpacked his stuff. “What is going on here? How much trouble did you get into or what have you smoked? You are actually doing homework, right after school?” The lads all nodded, while Niall chuckled a bit. “You see, you’re roomie with a genius, and he’s helping us with our homework. He said he was going to this his right after class, which we got to leave early, so we asked if he could help us with ours, and he said yes.”

“Wait, Stan, I thought you only could some Spanish and Science. WAIT, you got to leave early from math? How did you manage to do that?” Niall chuckled even more. “You see, when we were done with our tasks, we could leave. We left an hour before.” Harry could not believe his ears. Niall and Jaymi was done early with math? He had to be ill still, even though his doctors just told him he was 99% illness-free. His eyes widen even more when Niall told that he understood math, and had proven this to his teacher.

“Don’t worry Hazza, I will help you too” Stan spoke. Harry looked thankfully on him, and he looked like he didn’t believe what Stan just told him. “Hazza?” Oh no, he had given Harry a nickname that he didn’t like or he didn’t like that Stan gave him that. “I’m sorry mate, I did no..” Harry grinned before he chuckled a bit. “Don’t worry, I like it. But why aren’t you doing your homework? And how are you helping them, they are not even working on the classes you have together?” A smirk appeared on Stan’s face now. “Well, I am done with mine. And I am pretty good in most classes, even the one I don’t have this year or share with them. Sorry for being a nerd.”

Harry only looked on Stan. He looked both surprised and impressed, but most of all he looked happy. He was given a genius as a roommate, and he was even a nice lad and a bit funny. And he was happy his new roomie was starting to relax, and that he got along with his friends. In that moment, Harry realised that he and Stan were going to be very good mates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo here it's the second chapter, please do tell me if you like it or not! :) xx  
> I really enjoy writing so far :)
> 
> And yeah.. Union J will probably get involved a bit, as other students. And Michael, Calum, Luke and Ashton are the age, but a year older than the rest of the gang. 
> 
> I started writing 11 PM, the time is now...5:30 AM and I'm just done writing.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for all the love and great comments so far, it makes we wanna continue writing as fast as possible. (Look at the end notes for more details).

Stan could just not seem to get to sleep this night. He was trying and trying to not think about _those_ things. He was trying to switch position, but nothing was really feeling comfortable. Not even laying on his left side, which was his favourite position. He knew he had problems falling asleep and sleeping in general, especially on school nights, but this night was different. It was his first at Eastern Sherwood Boarding School after all.

After struggling for quite some time, Stan checked his phone, but he could not find it. That was weird, because he always slept with it in his hand. He had done this for years now, just in case someone was trying to reach him. He had always told people that they could call him any time, even at night at 4AM. Stan said this to, basically, everyone, because he felt that was natural. He knew how horrible it was to sit alone at night, needing to talk to anybody, and not being able to.

Where was his phone? It was so weird, why did he not hold it? It should at least be somewhere close, like under his pillow or somewhere in the bed, or on the floor, but it was nowhere to be find. He really just needed to know what time it was, but now he was having a heart attack or something, he always had his phone around. Stan is a phone-holic, and he knew it, but he didn’t seem to care. Now he was just panicking.

Then he remembered. Why he had left his phone as far away as possible (or at least as far away as possible in the dorm). He had no reason for bringing it to bed anymore, not after the episode. The episode that started all of this, what made him being transferred here from Norway. He got sick just by thinking about it. His stomach started flipping around like a rollercoaster.

Stan tried to stand up from bed, but he couldn’t. He was just feeling so dizzy and he had started to breathe heavily. Oh no, he was having a panic attack, and this was not because he could not find his phone. This was a serious panic attack, which he was used to by now as it happened quite often, but he could not do his regular routine. Usually he used to go in the shower, turn on the water and cry while he played music. That was probably enough to calm him down after half an hour, but it depended on what caused the panic attack.

He could obviously not do this now, since he did not have a shower in his dorm, and he could not go the shower area. He just had to do the second best, which was laying underneath his bed. Stan had never know why laying under his bed was working, but he found it safe and sound. So he crabbed under his bed and curled into a ball. He just hoped this panic attack went over quickly and that he didn’t wake up Harry. What was he supposed to say, if the British lad found him crying underneath his bed?

It was a mistake that he started to think about that, because he was almost not breathing anymore. He always did this – worrying about anyone else. Stan felt bad for a lot of things, not for himself though, for others. He just wished he could do something good for people, but he always felt he did something wrong. It was either something he did, something he said, something he didn’t do or said, something he was wearing, something about the way he looked. He just felt sorry for people who had to deal with him in any way.

Sometimes he would write songs or write text about he was feeling, but some panic attacks was worse than that. Even if he could write something, this was not a panic attack that would go over any time soon. He just had to try to calm himself down as fast as possible, because he was after all going to school tomorrow. Going to school tired was one thing, but going tired after a panic attack was the worst. He knew that from experience. Loads of experience.

After a while, he was feeling not as horrendous, so he crabbed out from his panic spot. He was heading towards the loo, but only because he needed to get his phone. He had left it in his drawer, where he had figured was the place as far away as possible (in his dorm). When he opened the drawer, and checked the phone, he almost dropped it.

Stan started to shake and the heavily breathing returned. The fact that the time was 4:30 in the morning was not the reason, but something he didn’t expect. A freaking text message, from an unknown number, had been sent to Stan’s phone. It was not his mother (who usually was the only person to send a text to him), so he was quite curious about it. He shouldn’t have opened it though, as he got sick in his stomach.

_“I hear you’ve been transferred to England hey? Don’t think you’ll get away that easy mate.”_

Stan really wished that he could die or something, because now he was not only insecure and anxious, he got quite scared as well. Who had sent this message? Who wanted to do something bad to him? Loads of people, that was all Stan could be sure of. Just think if this person found out where he transferred to and came here? Or maybe he already knew, and was trying to get some kids here in England to do something?

All these question was making Stan even more dizzy, but didn’t know what to do. In one way, he wanted to crab back under his bed, but on the other hand he wanted to sleep away his problems and wake up weeks later. Neither seemed like a good choice, but he ended up trying to sleep. He was after all going to school in less than three hours, maybe he would get through a day without hurting somebody.

♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠

A sound was making it’s way through the room and was cutting through everything once called silence. The sound was making Stan’s head feeling close to exploding. He really just wanted to turn it off and go back to sleep, or just cut his ears off or something. He was exhausted and tired as few others; he only caught a small hour of sleep. The time was 07:30 AM, and he last checked his phone at around 06:20 AM. _Kill me now_. That was the only thing that came to mind when he, after dwelling a while, went to the bathroom.

He really was ready to go right back to sleep, and he was not even able to shower, like he always did in the morning. The thing was, he was almost tired in the morning and needed to take a shower to wake up a little. It was not like he always fell asleep in the shower, but the mental effect was really helping him through the day. How he was going to survive this day, was going to be a miracle.

Even though Stan was tired af, he really did not want to dress like a bum or a homeless man, even though those comfortable baggie pants and the big, black hoodie looked extra comfie this morning. Stan knew himself that well that he knew he would regret it like hell later if he didn’t freshened up at least a bit. So he splashed some cold water in his face, added a bit moisturizing cream and fixed his hair with a bit of wax.

He dressed in a pair of blue-ish skinny jeans, a red long-sleeve shirt with tiny white dots on it, before taking on his newest pair of shoes; an orange-brown leather-ish autumn coloured pair of Lacoste autumn and winter shoes. They only cost him 150 £ or something and he did not really care. He was a shoe-maniac and he loved wearing new-bought shoes. He was not sure about these choices of clothes, but he could honestly not been caring less than he was.

Harry was already gone from the room, but returned only moments before Stan was leaving. He was probably returning from breakfast, just to pick up his bag. Harry and Stan was not having any classes until the last period, when they had geography. Malin and Ina, the pretty girls from the cantina yesterday, as long as JJ, Josh and Zayn, were also having that class together. Stan was actually looking forward to it, because he knew that many people and he did actually like geography.

“Hello mate, sorry for not waking you, but you looked like you really needed to get as much sleep as possible. I didn’t think you would miss breakfast though, sorry, but I brought you some beagles!” The British lad showed him the little paper bag, gesturing that Stan should take it. So he did take it, and smiled with a little “thanks”. He wasn’t that happy though, because he never ate breakfast, he always avoided it, but it was a nice thing to do by his roomie.

They walked together for a bit, doing a little small talk on the way, before they parted and headed towards their classes. Harry was having P.E, while Stan was heading towards his sociology class. He really hoped that he knew someone there, or at least knew of someone. He really didn’t want to be a loner once again, it was the worst. And he really hoped his teacher was Lord Boredom, because he was so sure he would fall asleep anytime soon.

When he entered his class, he spotted an empty seat. He was looking around if he knew someone, and JJ was there. Good, at least one person he knew of. As Stan took his seat, their teacher walked in. “Hello class, please sit down. Today we are going to talk about how people act with people they don’t know in different situations. Then we’ll discuss a bit, and if our new student Mr. Lindberg doesn’t mind, we will be using him as an example. He is in a class with loads of people he probably doesn’t know, so we will use that as an example.”

Great. Just great. He hated to be centre of attention, and hate when people talked about him. He didn’t need to introduce himself for the class once again, but he would prefer that to being talked about and analysed (and judged). Just because of this, Mrs. Barkley automatically became a teacher Stan couldn’t stand. This was really not the day, as he was tired as never before and looked like shit. 

Throughout the whole class, Stan switched between being worried and anxious about the fact he was going to be the main subject soon, and from almost dozing off. An hour sleep or so was excessively little for being enough for anyone. Stan was used to get less sleep than ‘normal’ people, but he was usually getting from two hours to four hours each night. As an addition, he wasn’t used to being worried about a anonymously text message. This day was horrible, though it was only a few hours old.

As he walked to the front, to being judged and analysed once again, he noticed the eyes burning at him again. Nevertheless, he did not feel as they did yesterday. They looked at him differently, or at least, it felt like they did. But whatever, he only wanted to get this shit over with. The faster this class was over, the faster this day would be over as well.

After about five minutes just standing in front of the class, answering silly question from his teacher, he started to get more anxious. All these eyes were glued to him, and there were no smiles to be found. Only JJ grinning once in a while and… that brown haired lad who had looked so weird at him yesterday. He seemed all distracted by something, because he was looking at Stan the entire time. Stan didn’t know what was going on with this kid, but he distracted him. “Mr. Lindberg, are you still here on earth?” Mrs. Barkley seemed a bit annoyed, as this was the third time she had caught him not paying attention.

Stan just rolled his eyes and answered, “Not after I entered this class”. He smirked a bit, because he was being his sassy self. He had always been a cheeky chap with a bit sass, but the last couple of years his sass level had reach new highs. Especially on day like this, when he was extra tired, the sass was so strong in him that Cher Lloyd looked like a shy school girl.

His classmates started laughing, some made those “oooh, snap” sounds, and some just grinned. A few people did give Stan ‘the look’, but he couldn’t have cared less than he did. He just wanted to get out of here and he was just that kind of person. He did notice that the ocean blue-eyed lad was smiling of what he said. He wasn’t smirking or grinning, it was a smile. A smile you get when you actually think something is funny, not you think is stupid or something, but that you really think is funny. It’s hard to describe.

The boy seemed to notice that Stan had noticed his smile, and as fast as you could say ‘banana pie’ his smiled disappeared. So did Stan’s grin when he saw Mrs. Barkley’s look, but he just gave her his ‘I am in a bad mood, go away’ look and she let the class go. Maybe he should do this every week, maybe even every class. If Mrs. Barkley didn’t like it, maybe he could make all his teachers uncomfortable.

♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠

“Hey JJ, wait up”. The other boy stopped and looked to see who called his name. “Hiya there Stan, what’s up?” The two boys walked down the corridor while small talking about the class and what they were going to do after school and stuff like that. Stan was just dying to ask if JJ knew something about the mystery kid. “JJ, who is that browned haired, ocean blue-eyed bloke in our sociology class? You know, who sat in almost in the front.” JJ stopped up and looked curiously at Stan, but he answered the question politely. “His named is Louis Tomlinson, just another typical football jock. How so?”

Stan argued with himself whether he should tell JJ what his mind was thinking or not. He could seem like a weirdo or something, so he ended up with a ‘just wondering, that’s all’. JJ just shrugged his shoulders and left for another class. Stan figured out he should be heading towards his next class as well.

Stan met up with Niall and Jaymi in their media class. Media was a class he either hated or loved, because it was not the typically subject. You could take photographs, make movies or do something in Photoshop or something. He loved doing something differently, but sometimes he just hated what they did. Like recreating pictures – he hated it with all his heart. Making movies, he could love it, he could hate it.

At least this class went by pretty fast, as they talked about body language and non-verbal communication. That was a subject Stan loved, he found it so interesting. They tried different ‘experiments’, to test how people responded to body language. Even though Stan would love to leave this class pretty soon, he raised his hand quite often, and he even showed a test-thingy. Everyone was going to held their hands like they were going to clap, but not before he said ‘clap’. Stan did clap first, before he said ‘clap’, but almost everyone did clap when Stan clapped. Their teacher, Mr. Stone thought it was an excellent exercise.  

Niall dragged Stan and Jaymi away from class, towards the cantina. He reminded Stan about a little kid who dragged their parents to show them a toy or something. Stan chuckled a bit, while Jaymi just rolled his eyes. Stan guessed this was not the first time this had happened, and Jaymi was starting to get used to it. Maybe even annoyed, but who knows?

The whole gang, with Liam, Harry, Josh, George, Malin, Ina, Tayla, Erika, JJ, Ashton, Luke, Calum, Zayn and Michael were already sitting in the cantina. The three lads just waved to signalise their entrance, and lined up to get their lunch. When he moved to England, he thought he had seen his last meatball, but apparently not. The lunch lady served him a full plate om them, but he knew only by looking at them, that these weren’t the best meatballs. After all, he knew his meatballs.

Once again the gang was talking across the table, almost yelling to each other. Stan couldn’t understand why they just sat closest to the people they seemed to talk most with, instead of spreading randomly around the table. Whatever, he only wanted to finish quickly, so he ate meatballs like he never had seen meatballs before. He cleared the spot where he sat and waved shyly to the gang, before heading towards to loo.

When Stan came out of the bathroom, he was feeling a bit dizzy as usual, but he shook it off. He was heading towards his music class, where he was going to be alone once again, but he never came that long. By coincidence, he met the headmaster, Ms. Hornet, in the corridor. “Mr. Lindberg, Mr. Lindberg, would you mind doing me a favour?” What the heck had he managed to stumble into now? “You see, your music teacher Mr. Orwell is ill today, and you won’t have a teacher. Would you mind going to your class and give them this note? No, never mind, I think it’s for the best if I do it myself. Anyway, you got the next two periods off.”

Oh my freaking cheeseburger, what a lucky break. Stan couldn’t believe that he got not one, but two periods off, so now he could get some sleep. He liked music, but today was not the greatest day to be in two periods with some other peasants making noise all the time. He did also like sleeping a lot, so he was quite satisfied.

He headed towards his dorm, when he spotted the mystery kid. _Louis Tomlinson_ was his name, which was what JJ had told him earlier. He was walking against Stan, but he hadn’t spotted him yet. There was something about this kiddo that caught Stan’s interest, but he didn’t know why. Louis looked like he had good taste in clothes, so Stan thought by looking at his outfit.

Louis was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans, with whole in the knee area, with a white t-shirt with a vintage picture of the band “The Fray”. He also wore a blue jeans jacket, who Stan was jelly of, and a pair of navy blue TOMS. Stan really did like his outfit, and it matched his body figure perfectly. What? Why did he think of that? Stan had to be more tired than he thought he was.

When the British lad was only a few metres away, he noticed Stan. A smile appeared on his face, leaving Stan clueless about why. People usually just laughed, or looked annoyed or disappointed when they saw him, unless they were going to mock him or something. Then they always smiled, or they grinned because that thought about their plan to get Stan embarrassed or to get him to cry or something. So what was Louis up to now?

“Hello there fella, it’s Stan right?” Stan only nodded shyly to confirm that he was correct. “I am Louis, we have English, Spanish and sociology together. I died when you said that sassy comment to Mrs. Barkley in socio today.” The other guy giggled a bit and kept on smiling. Stan didn’t know what was happening, and why he was talking to him. He was going to mock him right?

“So, anyway, why aren’t you going to wrong direction? All the classrooms are this way you know.” The British lad was chuckling and grinning, he seemed to really enjoy himself right now. Stan only shrugged his shoulders a bit. “Naah, I was suppose to have music the next to periods, but Ms. Hornet told me that Mr. Orwell is ill and we got the periods off. So I’m going to sleep now”. The other boys smiles did actually become wider right after Stan was finished telling. “That is perfect, because I do have music now as well, and I thought I was late. Well, that’s great. Looks like we have another class together, so I guess I’ll see you later then. Okey, bye Stan, nice talking to ya!”

Stan was surprised, shocked, and confused, all at the same time. He stared at Louis’ back when he walked away. What in the name of the shamaze-balls’ God did just happen? A popular footie jock was smiling at Stan, and he was not even going to mock him or say something horrible at all. He was genuinely nice all the time. This has never happened before, never ever in his 16 years long life.

Stan stood at the same spot for like five minutes, before he snapped out of his trance. He remembered why he was heading this way in the first case. He was going to sleep, or at least try. The time was 11:30 AM, and he didn’t have a class until 1:45 PM, when he had geography. Maybe he could get an hour or so, and that would seriously save him from killing anybody later.

As he entered the room, he did not even bother to take of his shoes nor his clothes, he just dived straight into his bed. In that moment, Stan thought he had never been so happy to see his bed again. He loved his bed, even though he only had slept in it for like one night. More like one hour, but that was not that important. He was so happy for being reunited with it, he could probably marry it. And before he could think more about it, he was floating away in his dreams. For what anyone could had known, he could be dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so, so, so, so sorry that it's been a bit of time since I've since updated. I really did not hope for this, but I've just been so out of it. On Sunday I stayed up all night, trying to turn my sleeping routine back around, so I was basically too tired for function normally. Any writing would have gone pretty terrible. 
> 
> On Monday we started school again, and as usual, I get pretty tired and worn out by it. So, I haven't felt like doing anything but sleep really, even though I have wanted to write more. I will try not to update this late in the future, but I won't promise anything. After all, I've got sooo many school days left, and it will only get worse (closer to exam's and stuff). And I am a busy guy during almost each weekend, but I will try my best!


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO, SO, SO SORRY. It was not going to take so long before a new update, I promise. I was like half way through with this chapter, but I deleted it. It didn't feel right, and I won't publish something that doesn't feel like to me. Just like the guys don't release songs that feels right for them in real life. I started writing last weekend on the chapter once again, but then my best friend ended up in the hospital - I didn't feel like writing then.
> 
> This week I've been sick the whole week, and I am still sick. I've managed to write this chapter though. Btw, I'm so sorry for all the horrible and horrendous english in the last chapters. I've noticed some mistakes that just makes me wanna cry and all, ugh. It's easy noticing that I've written those chapters after midnight. (I probably have some mistakes in this chapter as well ahaha)

No, no. Why are you being like this? Mum, why don’t you believe me? I haven’t done anything wrong. I really don’t get it. Mum, mum? Answer me, please answer me.  
Stan woke up, breathing heavily and sweaty. He was feeling sick in his stomach and his head felt like it was going to explode. He was having a panic attack once again, and he really did hate it. He tried to stand on his feet, which he surprisingly managed, but he stumbled a bit and felt dizzy. He managed to find his way to the bathroom, just to find himself throwing up moments later. 

When he walked out, he was confused. Where the hell was he? This wasn’t his room, but his stuff was here. What…where…when… and then he remembered. He was in boarding school in England, not home. He didn’t know how he should react to this, he was glad to be away from home, but he still didn’t like the way it all happened. ‘STOP IT’ was shouted through the room and he slapped himself in the face, trying to stop thinking about it.

Then he realised the time was day time, not weekend and he still got a geography class to attend. So Stan walked to his bed to check the time, and he started panicking again. The time was 1:40 PM, which meant he had class in five freaking minutes. He was kind of happy he had fallen asleep with his clothes and shoes on, because he could just run as fast as he could. And did he run, almost too fast, because he forgot to open the door and crashed right into it. OMG he was such a clumsy, and now he would probably get a mark or something. 

He ran like he had an angry bear behind him, with his mother chasing behind the bear. Which was the scariest was a good question, but he wouldn’t be caught by either. Even though he knew neither of them was behind him, he raised his speed and did manage, by any chance, to get to class in the nick of time. He was breathing heavily once again, but this time because he was exhausted. 

“Where the hell have you been mate, the class is about to start”. Harry looked at Stan with an asking face. Malin and Ina looked askingly and curiously on each other, both seated right behind Harry. JJ, Josh and Zayn were all there as well. They all just looked like their soul was sucked right out of them, so tired and bored and their hatred toward the school shine stronger than before.

“Ehm I’ve been asleep.” Stan just said shyly before he sat down, as their geo teacher Ms. Wood entered the classroom. The rest of the gang just shrugged their shoulders and turned their head toward their teacher. They all looked like a ghost went through them and took their soul with it. Stan guessed that they all hated geography, or Ms. Wood. Or maybe both. He didn’t know what, but there were something bothering them all. 

“Hello class, please settle down. I am Ms. Wood, which I’m telling you once again because I spot a new face next to Mr. Styles. Would you please come up here and introduce yourself to the class?” Here we go again. Whatever, it wasn’t something new and he wasn’t so nervous now. This time he knew some people, so he could look at them as help.   
“So, hello. I am Stan, or Stian if you want, which is my real name. It’s Norwegian, so am I. I am 16 years old, I just transferred here from a school in Northern Norway. Uhm… I love travelling, so I don’t mind really.” Why in the world did he say something like that? He really didn’t want to tell people about his likes and dislikes, not at least to a group of strangers. They probably couldn’t care less. 

What was coming next, didn’t Stan expect at all. Ms. Wood’s face was lightening up by his words “love travelling”. She probably did too or something. “This is very interesting, a foreign student from a non-speaking country – and you love travelling. I guess you know loads of different facts about countries and stuff.” Stan only nodded carefully in agreement, because this was somewhat true. He knew plenty of random facts about countries and stuff. The nodding he did was a mistake. 

“So, then you wouldn’t mind if I tested you? And you have no choice, because the whole class had to do this in the first class this year. No excuses!” Oh my gosh why the heck was this happening, he just wanted to sit down and disappear from the earth. This was not his day, even though the couple of hours he got to sleep helped a lot. The testing part was quite unnecessary in Stan’s eyes. 

“What is the capital of Wales?” LOL that’s easy. “Cardiff.” “The capital of Peru?” Does she think he was a first grader, this is basic shit. “Lima.” “What about South Africa?” She was smirking, and Stan knew why. “Well, the capital of South Africa is Cape Town, as long as Bloemfontein and Pretoria.” She stopped smirking and her face froze a bit. She didn’t expect that one. “Not bad. What’s the capital of the following countries: Holland, Malta, Andorra, Indonesia, Canada, The Ivory Coast and Argentina.” 

Harry looked at Stan and you could see the “wtf” expression in his face. The rest of the class just “ooooooh”-ed and laughed. No way Stan could know all of this. They knew Ms. Wood was getting annoyed that a student actually knew all the answers to her question. She was that kind of person who loved being the smart one and knowing stuff no-one else knew. Stan was probably pissing her off, but he couldn’t care. She asked for it. 

He thought about getting maybe one of them wrong on purpose, but he didn’t want to give Ms. Wood that satisfaction. “The capital of Holland is both Amsterdam and Haag, while Valletta and Andorra la Vella is the capitals of Malta and Andorra. When it comes to Indonesia their capital is Jakarta, while Ottawa holds the title as the Canadian capital. Random fact: Ottawa is one of three capitals in the world to start with the letter O, along with Oslo in Norway and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. The capital of The Ivory Coast is Yamoussoukro and at last, the capital of Argentina is names Buenos Aires, which means “Pure Air” in Spanish. Another random fact, Argentina is the second largest country in South America, having their Independence Day on 25th of May, which happens to be my birthday. 25th of May is also the Liberation Day of Lebanon and the Independence Day in Jordan. And of course, it’s the Africa Day and Africa Liberation Day.” 

Ms. Wood’s mouth was wide open and her face was frozen. The shock that a student knew all the answers AND some facts. The class looked almost just as shocked. If you could define silence, this would be it. Stan was sure it was so quiet that he could hear what everyone was thinking. And they thought “SUCH A NERD”, “WEIRDO” and “omg what a freak”. Oh gad what had he done? He was almost starting to panicking, but then he noticed the smirk on Malin’s face. And then Harry starting to grin. Zayn and Ina followed with each their smirk, before JJ and Josh joined. It went about ten seconds and then the whole class starting laughing and loads of “OOOOH BURN” flew through the room. 

Stan didn’t understand why they were laughing, he only answered the stupid questions, but then he turned to watch his teacher. She was red as a tomato and it looked like she was going to explode within the next few seconds. That really made Stan giggle a lot, like, shouldn’t a teacher be happy when I student actually know this shit? But when he giggled, she got even more annoyed and just pointed her finger against his seat. That made the class laugh even more.

After a couple of minutes later, she was a bit more calmed down, but an angry hippo would still be less scary and more chillaxed than she was. Stan couldn’t get over the fact that random kids had given him high fives and bro fists on his way back to his seat. That had actually never happened before, so the whole thing was quite surreal for him. Did they mean it or was is it just the kind of ironic way of saying “you’ll never be cool”. He wasn’t sure and it was making him anxious. 

The rest of the class went by quite quickly, as they were working South American countries. Stan had an presentation in his Spanish class back home about South America, and they had learned about all the countries (except Brazil of course, since they speak Portuguese there) for the last three years. Add that to the fact he loved travelling and like working with maps and stuff, this was quite easy. When Ms. Wood said they were going to have a test next Tuesday, Stan really didn’t mind. It would be a test he could almost show up to without studying to, which was the best. 

♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠

Back in their room, Harry and Stan was relaxing, just lying in each their bed and looking at their phones. Stan missed his Mac, which he wasn’t allowed to bring inside the school. They were at least permitted to have their phones, which made Stan a bit relieved – he was addicted to Twitter and other social medias. He thought about how he probably would have lost his mind if he couldn’t check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Vine, Snapchat, Keek, Kik, weheartit, ask or his blog. Or if he couldn’t check his text messages and send random messages to his few friends. 

After a while, Harry spoke, probably to break the little awkward silence. “So, are you up for some dinner or what?” Ugh, why did he ask that? He had eaten too much today already. “No, I am not really that hungry, but you just go ahead. I think I will just take a nap or something.” Harry once again looked like he was concerned, which he obviously he wasn’t, because it was Stan after all. Few minutes later, Stan was left empty in the room. Once again it was silent. Once again did Stan have a panic attack.

He managed to calm a bit down, but it wasn’t helping that much. He couldn’t go to the showers now, and he was too scared to go under his bed again. Just think about what Harry would think if he found Stan lying as a ball under his bed. Nevertheless, what the heck would he say or do? Stan tried to not think about it, it would only trigger the panic attack even more. So he decided on the third best thing he could do – walk, walk, walk while listening to music and just stop thinking about everything. 

So he sat up, took his TOMS on and started walking. The trip was about half a minute old before he stopped and stared empty through the air. He was arrived at the spot he had talked to this ocean blue eyed kid named Louis for the first time. The whole meeting seemed so weird, like it all was just a dream, just a random fantasy he had. But it did happen, he was so sure of it, it all seemed so realistic. Yeah, it did happen, he was sure of it. 

He snapped out of his trance and continued on his walk. He walked upstairs, downstairs, sideways (from left to right), in the library, in the hallway, back and forth, outside in the garden and everywhere. At some point he was sure he had explored every single part of this school, but then he noticed a door he had never seen before. The door seemed a bit old, or unused. Should he go inside? Was he allowed to go inside? 

His thoughts drifted away, and a few moments later, he had opened the door and was entering the mystery room. He was not sure how he ended up doing that, it seemed like his legs had decided to do as they wanted, and there was no turning back now. It really was, but what was the point of turning around when he already had come so far? What could happen really? No-one was getting hurt or offended, so why not do a little yolo or whatever.

Inside the room was a quite darkened room, with a simple lamp with an old bulb dangling from the roof, which was pretty far up. Then Stan noticed there was a spiral stair in the room as well. He closed the door behind him and started climbing the stair. And it did not take Stan a long time to understand that it was no possibility to enter a floor by using this stair. It only went straight up, in a spiral, and ended up at the top, with another old-looking door. This door was just like the other doors at Sherwood, quite quotidian, but there was still something that lured Stan towards it. 

The chilly wind hit Stan as fast and shockingly as an ice canon (if something like that actually did exist) – hard, brutally and unexpected. It took some seconds before Stan understood that he was standing on the roof of Eastern Sherwood Boarding School. It was not dark outside, which it would have been back at home, but it was starting to darker. The time was around five p.m. or something, and most students was either eating, training or studying, but not Stan. He was on top of the roof, all by himself.

He walked a bit around to explore the roof as well. He kind of liked the way it wasn’t just a simple roof with nothing interesting on it. There were some kind of small walls made of brick making a road, or an alley. Stan thought it reminded him of some sort of city, and he liked it a lot. Some places even had benches, and Stan figured this was a place there used to be people in before. 

When he had walked for a while, he sat down at a bench that was placed so you could watch the view. You could spot the buildings in the town, and loads of trees. In one way, it reminded him of his home place, where he saw plenty of trees from his house. This was however much more beautiful and peaceful. He liked this place, he would without a doubt come back here more than one time. This could be his spot where he came to forget about the reality.

Without thinking about what he was doing, he started singing. He didn’t sing as loud as he usually did back home though. He sang one of his own songs, a song he had written last summer. He wrote it because his dad had just yelled at him, slapped him and stabbed him with a knife. He remember how hurt he was, and not just by his wounds or bruises. His was having constantly pain in his chest and his whole body was shaking all the time. It still did though, but he tried hiding it. His mind was making him going insane, he stopped eating, he got more scars each day and he stopped sleeping. Before this, he did had problem falling asleep and with eating, but everything duplicated after this happening.

“Hiya there Stan”. OH MY SWEET CHILLY SAUCE BABY JESUS. Stan jumped into the air and went straight into a defence position, which he had learned from his self-defence training. He didn’t do that on purpose, but it had become a reflex for him over the last couple of years. Almost a minute with staring confusingly and sceptically on the other human being went by, before he realised who the other lad was. It was this brown-haired boy from earlier.

“Omg hi Louis, you scared the crap out of me mate. I thought I was alone up here”. The other bloke giggled a bit before he smiled. “Yeah, sorry about that. I would probably have reacted the same way. I thought I was the only one who knew about this place.” Stan just looked awkward down at the ground; he did not know how he was supposed to react or what to say. He hated this kind of situations, especially with “one of the cool kids”. They all seemed like idiots and thought everything you said was stupid and lame. Stan was so going to make a fool out of himself.

“So, you like to sing ey? What song was that, I haven’t heard it before.” OH NO. Stan was totally screwed now. Someone had hear him sing, and just to make it worse – one of his own songs. To top it off, it was a popular sport jock too. “Ehm, yeah. It was my own songs.” The other lad didn’t reply right away, so Stan used it to his advantage to make his departure. “I gonna go now, bye.” He said it so quick that it seemed Louis didn’t understand right away. It looked like he was going to say something, but he left only moment later. 

Back in his room, where Harry had returned to, joined by Zayn and Niall, Stan was just bursting through the door. The other boys all turned around and looked askingly at him. “Where have you been, and what the heck happened? You look like you saw Ms. Wood naked, and if you did, we understand why you look so scared.” Harry was probably only joking, but he had this concerned look in his eyes while saying it. Zayn and Niall only laughed, thinking what Harry said was quite funny. Stan couldn’t handle people now, but he couldn’t scream or anything, so he just mumbled ‘nothing’ before going to the bathroom. 

He was having a panic attack, but not like the regular ones. He was having a stress panic attack, which happened from time to time. In addition to his normally heavily breathing and freaking out, he was losing his mind. He started crying and just walked back and forth inside the little room. He tried ripping his hair of, scratched his arms up and switched between sitting in the corner and walking. He did not know how to stop this, and he tried to not make any strange noises. He wouldn’t let the lads in the other room find out, he only imagined what they were going to say. At the same time, he couldn’t stay in the loo for too long, that would make them suspicious. But he really didn’t know what to do, he was losing it. He felt like he was gonna pass out or something.

♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠

“Do you think it will be long till he wakes up? What do you think happened to him?” A familiar voice was breaking through to Stan, as it became more and more clear. It was more than one voice, most of them sounded familiar. “Oh, see he’s waking up. Hi Stan, how are you felling?” Harry was the first to notice, he almost stormed towards Stan. Where was he? Not in their dorm, that was for sure. And there was a unknown woman in the room as well, she kind of looked like a… like a… like a nurse. 

“Hello there Mr. Lindberg, how are you feeling? Does anything hurt?” Stan only nodded to confirm he was feeling okay. The nurse gave him some aspirin anyway and asked a bunch of question. Did he fall? Did he feel dizzy? How much had he eaten? What about drinking? Had this happened before? Stan only answered with short replies, mostly no’s and yes’s. Harry, Zayn and Niall all were in the room. Oh gad, he would probably need to explain or something to them later. They probably thought he was an attention whore or a freak, and now he would be friendless once again. 

The nurse was showing them out of the room, said Stan needed to rest some more. She said it probably wasn’t anything major, but she needed to do some more check-ups to be sure. Stan only groaned, because he just wanted to go back to his room and be non-social on his phone. Which he couldn’t, making this day even worse. What should he do now, he wasn’t allowed to sleep either nor could he walk. He could just lie in his bed and do nothing. 

The sound of a door opening caught Stan’s attention, hoping it was someone who could entertain him or the nurse that was ready to do the check-ups. To his surprise it was not Harry or one of the lads, nor was it the nurse or a teacher. It was the familiar gorgeous girl, Malin. They had only exchanged a few words so far, and they only sat together when the whole gang was gathered. It was quite weird that she was here, and she was alone. Not even with her bestie, Ina. Totally alone.

“Hello Stan, how are you?” Stan only replied with a shy “hi, ‘kay”. Malin sat down on the bed next to Stan. She smiled a bit, not faking it or anything, but a genuine smile. “I think I know what happened. You had a stressing panic attack right?” His eyes widen a bit, shocked and worried why she would ask that. Before he managed to say anything at all, she spoke once again. “Don’t worry, I know how hard it is to talk about. I used to have it myself, not that long time ago. I didn’t need much info to know what happened.” Stan only looked a bit stressed at Malin, not knowing what to do or what to say. 

He was not quite sure why he did it, but it was just something about Malin that was unusual – in a good way. “Yeah, this sports jock heard me sing. I don’t know, I just don’t want people to hear me sing. Especially not my own songs and people like him. I was sure he was going to castigate. I walked away before he managed to comment my singing at all. AND YES, before you ask, I sound horrible. If you imagine a walrus with a cold singing, while having a crow with a cracking voice in its throat, you would get my singing voice.”

Malin collapsed in laughter, and Stan was shocked. Once again he had made someone laugh, which he never had managed before. People usually only laughed off him, never with him or because they thought he was funny. “Wow you are funny omg.” She finally managed to stop laughing, but she kept on smiling like she was laughing silently. He was feeling comfortable around her, actually, she kind of reminded him of himself in some ways. “I just wanted to check up on you, I will be going now. I still have to study with Liam and I don’t want to keep him waiting.” She blushed when she mentioned Liam, and Stan understood why. He grinned a bit to himself, but not so Malin could notice. 

As she headed towards the door, she turned around and said with a big smile: “You know, I am here if you want to talk, even though we don’t know each other that well.” She opened the door and she was gone. Stan was quite shocked once again, he was really caught off guard. He did not see that coming and he wasn’t even able to thank her. He hoped he got the chance to say it soon, because he didn’t want her or anyone to think he was an ingrate. He actually felt like he needed to say it, because he thought he and Malin could be great friends. At least that was he hoped. 

The nurse, who was named Mrs. Puckett, was a very nice lady. She looked like she was around thirty and forty years old. Mrs. Puckett did her check-ups quite quickly and said Stan could leave now. He was very satisfied with that, but as soon as he tried standing on his feet, he felt dizzy and started stumbling. Mrs. Puckett helped him back to the bed and said he was going to have to stay until tomorrow. She have him some sleeping pills, not the strong ones, but she said it was important he got as much sleep as possible. The pills started working pretty fast, and Stan was glad he wasn’t given the strong ones, if this was the effect of the “weaker ones”. After about fifteen minutes, Stan was sound asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo I hope you liked it! Hopefully I won't use this long for the next update, and I am feeling inspired so maybe already a new update will be ready this weekend?? I don't promise anything.
> 
> PLEASE tell me what you think, seriously. It would help me to write a better story and to write faster!
> 
> PS! I do actually know all those facts and NO I didn't use google. The only think I needed to check, was if I spelled the capital of The Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. 
> 
> So, I think I will post some links about how some of the characters would look like in this story (not all, but some of them).
> 
> Louis: http://s3.favim.com/orig/39/amazing-brown-brunette-hair-louis-tomlinson-Favim.com-325212.jpg | http://aceshowbiz.com/images/wennpic/louis-tomlinson-one-direction-el-hormiguero-tv-show-01.jpg  
> Harry: http://4e7221.medialib.glogster.com/media/b25c562191ba9a7a525eab242c5e7564851028ee3a96407fd5fdec94e992f07e/harry-styles-2012-tumblr-99e17-copy.jpg | http://s3.favim.com/orig/41/harry-styles-harry-styles-smiles-one-direction-Favim.com-348423.jpg  
> Niall: http://s3.favim.com/orig/46/cute-niall-horan-one-direction-Favim.com-423853.jpg | http://s5.favim.com/orig/53/beautiful-cute-eyes-niall-horan-Favim.com-503065.jpg  
> Zayn: http://1derfulonedirection.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/zayn115.jpg | http://images.sugarscape.com/userfiles/image/MAY2012/Beth/1D/Zayn/ZaynMalikPout3.jpg  
> Liam: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dY6hMBFzPl0/0.jpg | http://kbtips.com/magazineimg/1/One-Direction-grace-the-cover-of-Seventeen-magazine-s-November-2012-issue6.png


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY! Seriously, school, politics and drama has been taking so much time and energy the least week, so I haven't been able to write. SO SORRY. I got loads of periods off the next couple of weeks, so I hope to update more.

Stan really didn’t know where he was. He had been staring at the roof for maybe half an hour now, or the little he actually could see of the roof. It was quite dark wherever he was. He had tried turning around and standing up, but his body just said “nope, not today mate”. So he just laid in the same position and stared at the roof. He tried to sleep a bit more, but it was impossible. This usually happened, he woke up after only a short time asleep and then he couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night.

After a while, he thought he heard some noises. He was correct, as the door went up with a crash. To his surprise, it was a Liam dressed up in his pyjamas. They seemed a little loose though, but it didn’t look weird. A red pair of pyjamas trousers, which were hanging a bit low. You could clearly which colours his boxers were, not that Stan really didn’t care. He was more interested in why Liam was in a hurry to come here, at this time at night. 

“Liam, what’s wrong?” he asked the other boy. The other lad did not reply, he only stood there and stared. Stan tried several times calling his name, before he realised that Liam might was sleepwalking. Stan knew he shouldn’t wake up a sleepwalker, because that could cause several consequences mentally and stuff. He was not quite sure what, but his ex-best friend used to sleepwalk, and he had told this to him.

“STAN! STAN! GET AWAY FROM TOMLINSON! HE MADE YOU COLLAPSE AND HE IS ONLY BAD NEWS, GET AWAY FROM HIM NOW” the Wolverhampton lad shouted all of a sudden. Stan was not prepared for this at all, so he almost screamed out loudly, and fell out of bed. Was Liam having a dream? But why would he come here and shout about Stan and the strange Louis kid, and how could Liam know that Louis was behind the collapsing? This was so freakishly creepy and weird, and it made Stan quite curious. 

“What… where… how… ehhh”. It seemed like the other lad just woke up, but Stan was too nervous to ask, just in case he still was asleep, and Stan didn’t want to cause problems that could follow Liam for the rest of his life. So his just laid still, as he actually was able to move now (probably by the shock of Liam’s yelling, or at least that was Stan thought). He didn’t say a thing, just waiting for Liam to wake up by himself. But he only looked around the room, like he was trying to figure out where he was.

“Oh, Stan? Wait what? Why am I here, how did I get here, I don’t ge…. I sleepwalked, didn’t I?” Liam was finally awake and he realised what was going on. Stan turned on the little lamp on the desk next to the bed. “Yeah, and you screamed. You scared the shit out of me mate, please don’t do that again. Though you made me able to move again, so thanks for that.” Liam looked askingly at the Norwegian lad, not understanding what he was talking about.

“You screamed that I should get away from Tomlinson. And before you ask, I wasn’t able to move, I guess it was those pills or something. You scared me so badly I think my body reacted with adrenaline or something.” Liam first stared emptily at Stan, but then he started giggling, which turned into a really huge laughing session. Both lads laughed and laughed, it almost felt like it went on for years. When they both calmed down, Liam said goodbye for then and went back to his dorm. They would talk about it later.

Stan was not going to sleep now, that was for sure. So he grabbed his phone, took on his shoes and went for a little walk. He was not sure if he should or if he was allowed to just leave the nursing room, but he was bored and was not going to sleep. They should be happy he was feeling fine and all, and they would probably figure out he was not ill if he could walk away. 

So once again, only some hours later, he was wandering around the hallways. This time he was all by himself, as everybody else was sleeping. He tried to extra careful to not stumble into any of the corridor guards, because he really did not want to visit the headmaster’s office first in the morning. So he snuck around, which he in one way found a bit exciting. It reminded him about his childhood, when he used to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with his old friends. They used to sneak around and spy on people. 

He ended up doing a quick pit-stop at his room, just to change outfit, do his morning routine with the cream and stuff, grab his books and his bag with clothes for PE. He tried to be as quiet as he could, the time was only 4AM after all. Packing his bag for PE was the worst, he didn’t remember where he had put his sport clothes, so he kind of made loads of noises. Harry was sound asleep when he left the room, so he was happy.   
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠  
Stan was sitting in the library, in a sofa thingy, which was quite comfortable. He was pretty bored, and then he remembered that he had an English presentation due Monday, so why not just do it now? He would usually do it on Sunday evening, so it wouldn’t hurt to do it a little early. 

For some strange reason, he finished it within the time passing 4:20, which was really quickly. Maybe it was the fact he loved football and writing about it was easy, or it was so dark and peaceful. He didn’t know, but he actually enjoyed it. When he first was doing school work, he did his Spanish and Geography homework, as well as his Science homework. Before he knew it, it was light and the time was around 7:30 AM. 

When he was exiting the library, he could hear other student approaching. They were probably heading to get some breakfast, which Stan had no intentions of. Instead he headed towards the locker rooms, since they at PE in their first class. He was going to be joined by Ashton, Luke and Liam. He was quite curious about the previous meeting with Liam and what the shouting was about. “Get away from Tomlinson.” What was that suppose to mean? He was curious, so he decided to ask when Liam appeared.

The locker room was, as suspected, totally empty, which Stan was happy about. He hated getting change in front of others, because they would be able to see his body. So he could relax and probably not have a panic attack. He changed quickly into his black Adidas-shorts and white Adidas-shirt, adding the Adidas-shoes to make it a complete Adidas-outfit. He got a discount if he bought Adidas-products for more than 25£. 

He went outside to the field, starting to trick with the football a bit. Then he started to practice his shots, which he loved. From he was around 5 or 6 years old, he had loved football and was dreaming of being a proper footie. He quit playing when he was 14 years old, as his team mates and coaches included, was bullying him. He still loved to play football and be on his own practicing shots and stuff. 

“Hi Stan. Are you feeling okay today?” Luke asked suddenly, which surprised Stan. He was not aware that other people had entered the field – wow, the time had just flown away. It was time to start the class, as their teacher Mr. Gimwick had entered. He yelled to say everybody should start doing some laps around the field to warm up. Great, Stan was probably one of the few people who enjoyed running. So he just started running, and running – not really caring about all the other twats around him. 

“Okey, okey, gather around peeps. Today we are going to play a footie game, two teams – just pick the teams yourself. Just remember to split fairly, around 15 on each team. I will be substituting a player every fifth minute, so everyone get their fair share of play time and pause time.” Mr. Gimwick actually seemed quite nice, in comparison to all the previous teachers he ever had and some of the teachers at this school. Stan was grateful for this, as PE probably was his favourite course.

Stan was placed on the bench from the start, which bugged him a lot. He would love to start and to play as much as possible. But the teacher, or the coach (since he coached the school team in football), had noticed Stan and he wanted to chat a little with him first. Oh great, what now? At least he didn’t need to introduce himself once again. Hopefully Mr. Gimwick was as nice as he looked, or maybe even nicer? Stan wasn’t expecting it though, as every time he had hoped for something positive, it turned out quite the opposite.

“Hello there mate, Stan Lindberg right? Welcome to Eastern Sherwood Boarding School, it is a pleasure to meet ya. As I said, I’m Mr. Gimwick, but I respond to ‘coach’ and Peter, which you shouldn’t call me as any other teachers hear it. They’re pretty austere you know. I’m more laid back!” Wow he was actually just as nice as he seemed. Stan just nodded and smiled, what else should he do? Should he say something? What should he say?

“Do you like any sports? Not to be rude, you seem more like the type to like books and stuff, but who knows?” Stan didn’t know if he should be offended or not, as it kind of was true. A teacher shouldn’t think, or at least not say something like that. Whatever, he really didn’t care. “Yeah, as a matter of fact I love all kind of sports, with football as my favourite.” Mr. Gimwick looked a bit shocked, but then he grinned and chuckled a bit. “You see, I was wrong. Or maybe you like books to for all I know. Well, get ready, I’m gonna let you play now”. 

Just as fast he had finished that sentence, he was calling on a boy out on the fields, so they could substitute. Stan was quite excited, and at the same time nervous as hell – he wasn’t that good and he could end up embarrassing himself so badly. Well, here goes nothing and he was hoping he would do okay. At least, he got to play in his favourite position, which is on the right mid/wing. 

Stan was having loads of fun playing, and he was not taken off the field once after he entered. He didn’t understand why, but he was happy he got to play the most out of all. Stan thought he had done okay, but he was not sure. Though many of his fellow students, both teammates and not teammates had said some compliments and some lads even gave him bro-fist and high-fives. That meant he hadn’t made a complete fool out of himself, unless they’re were just doing that indirect bullying thingy, giving obviously fake compliments and stuff. 

“Stan, Stan wait a second.” Oh gad, Mr. Gimwick wanted to talk to him, which was a bad sign. Because, when had it ever been a good sign when a teacher wanted to have a word with you after the class? Never, at least nothing Stan could think of. “What was it coach?” You could sense the tenseness in Stan’s body and his voice sounded really nervous. 

“I just wanted to say that I’m quite impressed of what I saw today. I can see why your teacher back at home wanted to give you an A+.” Stan did not really understand what Mr. Gimwick just said, but he replied. “Ehm thanks, but it wasn’t that great.” You could see the surprise in his eyes by Stan’s answer. “So basically terrorising the opponent’s defence by insanely great dribbling skills, five amazing goals, in addition to a really fast running speed, excellent work capacity and great in defence too, and you call that “wasn’t that great”? Haha you sure don’t have the best self-esteem I see.” 

A moment of silence followed, but the coach only grinned and Stan was obviously still quite shaky of nervousness. He was wondering if he should go or not, because it looked like Mr. Gimwick had more to say, but he was so silent. FINALLY he broke the silence “so, I think you should join the school’s football team. Usually I don’t ask students to join, and I usually don’t take someone in at this late hour – and usually I do have take outs. But what I just saw, was quite extraordinary. So, I’ll hope you join – practice this afternoon at 5.”

Stan had only nodded in surprise, faked a little smile, and was on his way to the locker room. He was now troubled if he should take part of a after school activity or not. There were so many pros and cons. One way he would be able to get to know someone, maybe even build a little reputation for himself and to do something he loves, and at the same time get his mind on something else – for all that he knew, it could help him.

BUT on the other hand it was such a pressure being on a school team (which happened to be the most popular at the school), like with other students who can take what happens on the team to the school, he could fail miserable and his situation could get a lot worse. AND let’s not forget about the pressure of sharing locker rooms with the sport jocks – stuck up little idiots who were, to under exaggerate, high on themselves and not Stan’s cup of tea. Maybe a shower would help, he always thought clear while showering.  
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠  
The next class, which was another Spanish class with the boring Mrs. Carmer, who just proved to be another boring, austere teacher. He, Harry and Josh basically joked around when they worked on their homework (who they actually got to do in class, thank goodness for that). The time flew by, thankfully for that, but something was bothering Stan. Something were missing, or… someone was missing.

While they walked to lunch together, Stan was keep looking, just to see if he noticed the thing… person missing. But he was nowhere to be seen. Josh, out of all people, noticed that Stan seemed distracted. He did ask, but Stan only said he was kind of tired. 

At the lunch table everything went on as usual, only that Stan was participating in the conversation, whether he wanted it or not. They only did some small talk, but you could sense the tension. It was not like Stan hasn’t been in the nurse’s office the last night, and Liam and Stan had something to talk about and stuff. He was also going to thank Malin for being such a kind person. He really loved when people did kind things to him, even if it’s was just a little thing as saying “hello, have a nice day” or smile to him when he passed them in the street. So he was defiantly going to thank her.

He did actually think he had the perfect way to do that, because he could see how she reacted around Liam, and he could see the way Liam looked at her. He was so gonna put them together, at least he was going to try. He knew they would totally hit it off, and they would look cute together. So he was going to make that happen.

In the middle of a conversation with Liam, the British lad stopped talking. Why on earth did make him stop, but there was something behind his back. When he turned around, he was not sure what to expect, but it was not certainly not this. It has been missing, or he has been missing. The blue-eyed, brown-haired British football-lad named Louis Tomlinson had entered the room. And boy, how Liam did tense up. Which made Stan even more curious to find out about what the all “stay away from Tomlinson” thingy was. 

“Why are you staring at Tomlinson guys?” Luke suddenly asked. They both just nodded, almost synchronized, to answer with a ‘nothing’. “Talking about Tomlinson, he’s the captain of the football team. And Stan was KILLING it in PE today, you should all have seem him. He’s not just a bookworm, he’s a killer footie. Have you thought about asking joining the team?” Luke was almost looking TOO excited to be able to breath, which was a bit weird. 

“Oh no, you should not join. Just imagine being stuck with Louis and his gang ugh, no you shouldn’t.” Malin was answering quicker than bullet. She obviously didn’t like Louis at all, and he didn’t know why. “I think you should join, you were quite extraordinary out there today. You would probably get on the team hands down, even though you’re in Year Three.” Ashton said, and he told that this Tomlinson kid is the first third year student ever to get to join the team, and obviously the first to be captain. 

Stan was having a huge argue inside his head, whether he should say he was asked to join the team or not. He was also arguing if he should join or not, and this conversation with the gang did not exactly help. He just told them all a big ‘I don’t know’, before he headed towards the loo, as usual, since they had class soon.   
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠  
The day went by pretty fast really, the classes was not that boring and he was starting to get to know people in almost every class he had. What he was not looking forward to, was having an extra class at 3:15 when everybody else got to eat and chillax. Just because he was not from the UK or any other English-native speaking country, he had to take two extra periods with English classes per week. Pretty annoying, but he was not the one to complain. Or, he was complaining, but he was not able to do a single thing about it. 

Between the last “ordinary” class, which ended at 3 O’clock, and the extra class, Stan ran into Malin. He was happy because he could thank her for being so nice the day before. She seemed worry though, as she had something to say, which wasn’t that pleasuring to hear. Stan didn’t know what, so he just did as planned. “Hi Malin, thank you so much for last night, it was really kind of you and I do really appreciate it.” Malin seemed a bit surprised by this, but she smiled before replying. “Oh, that, that was nothing, really. I do really want to tell you… Louis is… ehm… dangerous, you should not get involved with him, if you join up with the team that is. I… we have a history, NON dating of course.” 

Stan did not what to say, as usual really, but this was such an unusual situation. He did want to ask, but he really did not have time for that. So they said their goodbye, after an unexpected hug exchange. Stan was not used to hug people, not even his family, so it was such a kind of surreal situation. It stuck with him throughout the whole class, but if he was being honest, he was not sure if the hug or the “don’t get involved with Louis”-part. First Liam, now Malin. SHIT he was going to bring them together. He will, tomorrow, he promised himself. 

As fast as the class was over, Stan ran up to his room to grab his bag. He was not sure, but he had made a decision to actually join the team. He would probably never have done this back home, but screw that shithole. He was intrigued and a bit excited, wanted to try something out of his comfort zone. If it was that he had basically been sleeping equally to no sleep at all, or whatever it was, he was going to do it. He loved football, right, that was why. Or was it?

Mr. Gimwick was thrilled to see that Stan had decided to join the team, and gathered the team and did the announcement. Most of the lads was really not hiding their judging well at all, and some even laughed a bit. Everyone except Louis. Stan was kind of happy that this was the case, but he was so nervous about doing something wrong. After lunch, where he found out about Year Three students never joining, until Louis and now Stan, was freaking him out. 

The warm-ups did help him a lot though, he was able to concentrate much more and relaxing. Running always seemed to calm him, and by adding some extra exercises while running did not hurt at all. He was loosening up, which was very, very good. Being partnered up with none other than blue-eyed boy was not helping, as he tensed up once again. Probably even worse than he was, which should be impossible and illegal. 

The practice was over faster than he would ever imagine, and that was actually a shock. Being partnered up with Louis to do passes and stuff, was nothing bad at all, he was very polite and seemed very nice. At one moment, Stan was actually thinking that they two could be friends for real. Just two mates, loving football, who probably could grab a beer (when they’re both legal of course) or something. He quickly realised that would never happen, but it was a nice thought. 

In the locker room, Stan was purposely the last one, because he had helped the coach gather the equipment and stuff. He would usually have done this anyway, but he really didn’t feel comfortable around the other lads, especially in the locker room where they could comment on his body and stuff. She he used some extra time out on the field, extra long time on the stretching part. 

When he was finished and exiting, he was surprised that he was not alone outside the locker rooms. Non other that Mr. Captain was standing there, looking like he had been waiting on someone, but Stan did not have the guts to ask or anything. So he was just going to walk past him, maybe smile or say hi, or probably just look on the ground or at his phone.

That’s probably what surprised him the most, when the British bloke suddenly spoke. “Hi Stan, great practice today. You’re really good.” Okey, just kidding, this was the most surprising of it all. “Hi Louis, yeah… thanks, so are you though.” A.W.K.W.A.R.D. He hated this kind of situations and was dying to leave, but he didn’t. It was something about this other boy that he couldn’t quite figure out. So he stayed. 

“So, why are you still here? It looks like you are waiting for someone or anything.” WHAT….WAIT….WHY? He just spoke again, and he was asking a question. Bad idea, bad idea. He was being annoying and no, no, no. Why did he do that? He wanted to apologize, but then Louis would look even weirder at him. “Oh, no I was waiting for you actually.” What is happening, what is happening? Where are the hidden cameras? Stan was panicking and tried as good as possible to stay calm. 

“You see, I think it’s great that another guy from Year Three is joining me, I’m quite lonely you know. And you seem like a nice and cool kid, so I was wondering if you wanted to hang? I totally understand if you don’t want to or if you can’t right now.” Oh my holy shamazeballs, Louis is asking them to hang. Okay, calm down Stan, you’re not a teenage girl with a major crush on this boy. 

He was panicking, because he didn’t want to be rude and he had been thinking of them two being friends. But he was a person he did not know and he was hanging with people who weren’t Stan’s cuppa. Then again, Louis seemed nice and he was such a mysterious and interesting guy, and Stan did not know why, which bothered him.

“Yeah, I would love that. What did you have in mind?” Louis smiled by his answer and just gestured in a direction. “Follow me.” Stan was so freakishly nervous, but at the same time he kind of liked it. Which never had happened before. As his phone buzzed with a SMS from Malin, he walked away.

_“Hi, what’s up?”  
“Hiya, just going to hang with Louis.”  
“WHAT STAN? NO, DON’T.”  
“I don’t see what’s the problem is, but we’ll talk tomorrow, okay?”  
“But Stan…”  
“Sorry, I know you don’t like him. But I have something planned for you, and it includes Liam. Okay, bye :) x”  
“hythenyuthe Staaaan…okay, be careful. Bye x”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo what do you think? Please give me as much as possible feedback, like..did you like it or not? What was good or what was bad? And stuff like that! xx Loads of love!
> 
> My twitter and tumblr:  
> http://twitter.com/SimplyJustStian  
> http://the-average-teenager-boy.tumblr.com


	6. Chapter Six

Stan was following nervously after Louis, not sure where they actually where going. Louis said they were going to hang, but what in the world did that include? He had no idea, other than Louis’ room or the study hall. They spoke very little, which was not that weird. Stan was as usual to scared to say something wrong, and he was not sure what to say, and Louis only seemed eager to get underway. 

Just as Stan had thought, they were now entering the dorm building, the same as Stan lived in. He guessed Louis lived here too, and he was going to show him his room. They started going up the stairs, but Stan was starting to wondering where they were going. They just passed the fifth floor, which was the last floor where Year 3 students lived. Okay, this maybe not what he expected, but where the shell were they heading to?

Suddenly Louis stopped, in front of a door that had a sign that said “DO NOT ENTER”. The British bloke smirked a bit before saying, “try to open it.” Stan did so, he was not doing anything wrong, as long as he didn’t enter. It was closed, not a shocker to be honest. If it said “do not enter”, it would at least be locked.

Louis only grinned and smirked even more, before he jammed up a key from his pocket. “Watch and learn”. He unlocked the door and grabbed Stan’s arm to pull him in. Stan was not quite sure why, but the feeling of Louis’ arm around his arm was making him nervous. It was a good nervous feeling though, but why the hell did he get that? 

He followed the Donny lad inside the room, which was dark. Louis lit a flashlight and pointed Stan towards a latter, and gestured that he should climb it. So once again, without question, Stan did as Louis had told him. Why he was just listening to this fella he really didn’t knew at all, was a great question. Stan had no answer to it, but he was not sure if he did mind it or not. 

When he reached the top, he stepped to step forward, only to find himself in front of another door. He opened up the door, because he assumed they weren’t going to hang around in the small space between the latter and the door. This was not locked either, so he just went ahead. 

Much to Stan’s surprise, they were standing on the roof. It was kind of the same structure as the roof thingy he had visited the other night. Just like a tiny little town with streets and alleys on the roof. He was kind of curious about this, but he was not going to ask, or not for now. Louis, who was just entering through the door, just walked right passed Stan and gestured that he should follow him once again. Stan did follow, still wondering about where the heck Louis was taking him. 

After a short walk for about two minutes, they stopped. Suddenly Louis jumped off the roof, and Stan gasped shockingly. OMFG LOUIS JUST JUMP OFF THE ROOF. He was starting to panic, what the hell was he going to do? A guy just jumped off the roof, and he was probably dead by now. How should you act in a situation like this? Cry? Panic? Scream? Jump off the roof too? So many thoughts was swirling through his mind. Stan got dizzy and started losing his sight. 

“Stan, you there?” WHAT THE SHAMAZEBALLS?! LOUIS? “Stan, are you coming or what? You alive or did you die?” Stan was sure his mind was playing him some kind of trick. This was probably some of the things that happened when people went into shock after a death or something, a side effect. No way he just heard Louis talk, he had jumped of the roof, and this building was 8 floors tall. 

Once again, much to his surprise, Louis popped up on the roof again. “But... how …what?” Stan just looked surprised at Louis, not sure what to think. He was happy that Louis was fine, but confused. “What? It wasn’t like I actually jump off the roof. Come here, and you’ll understand”. Stan walked carefully and shaky towards the roof edge, not sure what to expect. What if this was all a trick to do something bad against him? He didn’t know Louis at all really, and he had two friends telling him to stay away from him. 

What he actually did expect was a mystery, but this was not it. When he reached the edge, he was surprised. Just a meter or so down, was a platform or a porch of some sort. Louis jumped down and opened another door, and went inside. Stan just followed curiously after, once again not sure what to think. Where the freaking was he going to, and how the hell did Louis know how to get there? So many questions, but he was not going to ask. 

The room he entered looked like a dorm room, but with a twist. The room had a TV inside, with a PlayStation 4, a microwave and a sofa. It looked kind of cosy to be honest, Stan would love this as his room. Now he had to ask, he couldn’t be quiet about it all. But before he was able to ask, Louis opened his mouth to speak, just as he had read Stan’s thoughts or something. 

“You see, one of my friend’s big brother from back home in Doncaster, attended this school. He and his friends found a key and a map to this place, so they figured they should invent their own private little cave. They handed it over to me when they graduated, which was just before I started here.” Louis grabbed a soda and threw himself on the sofa. Stan just stood awkwardly and looked. Should he sit down, and if so, where? He didn’t know what to do.

“Ehh are you going to stand there all day or are you gonna sit down mate?” Louis’ comment snapped Stan from his trance, and he slowly moved to the sofa. What now? Louis had dragged him up here, without really knowing him and stuff. He wanted to hang, but Stan was not comfortable yet, had he done the right thing? He was getting whiter and whiter in his face, which Louis hopefully wouldn’t notice.

“So, I want to get to know you better. Why you may ask, well… first of all, we’re playing on the same football team for at least a year, and as the only Third Year students, I think we should stick together. And also it’s quite funny to get know a foreign student and… I don’t know, there’s just something about you that made me interested haha, sorry if this creeps you out.”

“Eh ehm uh… no, not really. Just surprising, that a popular lad like yourself want to hang with me on his own free will… well, look at me, I’m a total loser and stuff.” Stan looked down on the floor, don’t wanting to look at Louis. He was probably going to start on the long list of reasons why he was a totally loser and nerd and stuff. He did not want to hear this. 

“What the hell have you been smoking mate? You’re not a loser, that’s not the impression I have gotten. You seem like a really cool guy, and you’re both smart and good at sports – a dream combination.” Did Louis, the popular bloke on school, just say that to Stan? He was quite sure he was dreaming, he had to be, for sure. 

“Oh…uhm… thanks?” Stan was horrendous at handling compliments and… okay, let’s be honest, Stan was horrendous when it came to everything that was about communicating with other human beings. Louis was for sure done with “hanging” with him after this evening, which made him sad and relieved, both at the same time. He hated being uncomfortable, but he liked the idea about being mates with Louis. It was going to end anyway though, so he was starting to getting used to the thought. 

“Ya know, it’s kind of adorable how socially awkward you are. I like it, I’m kind of sick stuck up little twats.” Louis did say that, and he smiled. It was that genuine smile again, and it was really beautiful. Stan was not sure if he had seen any smile like that. What the hell… he was still not a fourteen year old girl who had a major crush on Louis. Wow, what was going on? He needed to stop thinking about it, it was too weird. Thankfully did Louis ask if he wanted to play FIFA, which he said yes to. He hadn’t played FIFA in years, but he hoped he wouldn’t suck too much, he really didn’t want to be the loser nerd he was. 

The hours flew by, and Stan really enjoyed hanging with Louis. After playing FIFA for like an hour or so, they watched a movie, which was called “The Giver”. Stan really enjoyed the movie, but was a bit disappointed about the end. He thought it should have been a bit more open, which would have opened the opportunities for a sequel. After they had watched the movie, they just ended up talking. Usually he wouldn’t have shared so much about himself or about his thoughts and feelings, but this was an exception. 

Stan found out that Louis was born with the middle name Troy and the surname Austin, but after his mum and dad split, when Louis only was a toddler, he changed his middle name to William, and took his stepfather’s surname, Tomlinson. Louis was estranged from his father, which Stan was feeling bad for, on Louis’ behalf. He also found out Louis was the only boy among his siblings. He got four half-sisters mother’s second marriage, and also a half-sister from his father’s second marriage. His mum lately gave birth to a couple of twins, from her soon-to-be third husband. Stan was fascinated by the fact that Louis had now seven half-sisters, where there was two sets of twins. 

Stan had told a bit about his life as well, nothing much. He told that he got one older brother, who almost didn’t speak to him anymore, a father that wasn’t always the nicest person, and a mum who tried, but didn’t manage to connect with him. Stan thought it was just that their personalities were so different, nothing more than that. He told a bit about his previous school, the one he left out of nowhere, but then regretted bringing it up. A obvious question for Louis to ask, would be why he transferred, and Stan was not up for talking about it. He was happy that Louis didn’t ask, and was grateful to Louis for that.

When they parted their ways, the time was suddenly pass 2 AM, and they both just laughed about it. Louis lived two floors above Stan, so Stan tried as quietly as possible to sneak downstairs to his room. He was really not looking forward to having a conversation with the teachers who walked in the corridors at night, or a convo with the headmaster, Ms. Hornet. He was successful in returning to his room without getting noticed, but Harry woke up. Stan only whispered “only getting some air, sorry for waking you”, and Harry dived back into his pillow. Stan couldn’t sleep.  
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠  
“Rise and shine bud, you’re late.” Stan was trying to wake up Harry, who did not seemed pleased that the night was over already. “What time is it?” His voice was really affected by the fact he just woke up. Stan was feeling bad, because he had woken the Holmes Chapel lad in the middle of the night. “It’s twenty minutes till class begins, but I did bring you breakfast. I hope you like croissants and a cuppa tea. I added a dash of milk and half a spoon honey, I’ll hope you like it.” Harry looked a bit confused, but he smiled gratefully. 

“What’s going on with you today?” Harry was getting dressed at the same time as he tried to eat. Stan wished he could tell the truth, but he wasn’t sure if Harry would be mad or something. So he just nodded a little “I don’t know to be honest”. Harry was probably even more confused and curious, but he didn’t ask any questions. They both left the room, heading for their classes. Harry was going to have science and Stan was having media with Niall and Josh. 

Today’s class wasn’t half bad, because they was starting on a photo project. The project was making a series out of four photos that represented their lives right now. So all class was going to brainstorming and making sketches. Stan had, as usual, one million and fifty four ideas, which he both loved and hated. Their teacher, Mr. Stone, liked that he had so much creativity, because he was used to having students that only was thinking inside the box. Just like Niall and Josh, which both was planning on taking pictures of their bed, their PlayStations, the mall and their favourite fast food restaurants. 

The next class was drama, which he was looking forward to, because he was not able to take this class back home. He loved acting, even though it meant standing in front of many people and talking. He was not scared of this, or not at least terrified, because he was acting and not being himself. That helped him relax a lot. He was used to acting too, because he did it every day, to hide his true emotions and stuff. 

He was joined by Tayla, Ashton, Luke and Malin, which was a bit weird, because Ashton and Luke was in Year Four. Drama was the only class that mixed two years, Year One and Two, Year Three and Four, and Year Five and Six. Their teacher was Ms. Spout, a young teacher, probably only in her late twenties or early thirties. She made them do loads of different practice tasks, which was quite funny and inspiring. The class was over before it had begun, or that was the feeling Stan had after class. That was something that didn’t happen often. He was also very intrigued by the announcement that the school was going to have a play later this year. 

At lunch, he was chattier than he had been the days before, and everyone was enjoying it, or at least it seemed like they did. They all were just a bit shocked and confused, but in a good way. He finished earlier than usual though, and left for the loo. Stan felt he needed a little bit of extra time before class this day. He just hoped nobody asked why he always had to leave so early for the loo every day. 

His phone was buzzing, quite a lot. He was wondering why, and as the phoneoholic he was, he checked in a flash. Seven new messages, from four different people.  
“Stan, we really need to talk. Tomlinson just asked for you.” Liam seemed worried, and they really needed to talk, because he felt Liam didn’t tell him something. He didn’t know what to reply, but ended up with a short answer. “So? Well… we’ll talk after my football practice tonight? And btw, you should totally ask Malin out. Trust me.”

The next was from none other than Malin. “STAN WE HAVE TO TALK LIKE RIGHT AWAY. LOUIS JUST ASKED FOR YOU.” What was the big deal if Louis had asked for him? “Seriously Stan, meet me as fast as you can. What happened last night??” Stan was a bit worried about what this fuzz about Louis could be, but he was sure it wasn’t something big.

“Ehm… Louis Tomlinson asked for you, but I don’t know what to say… just letting you know mate.” Thank you Harry for not being so melodramatic. The three last messages was from the same unknown number that had texted him the other night. A huge ache appeared in Stan’s stomach. “I know where you are.” Omfg. “I will strike soon, be prepared to loose everything.” Kill. Me. Now. “I know what you did, and I’ll make sure everyone knows. Xoxo or something.” Stan could just die right there. How was he going to focus in class now? Why was this person doing this? Who was he or she? 

He entered his English class, where he sat down in a randomly seat. He felt like throwing up, he really didn’t want to be here right now. Thankfully he was done with his project, so he could really relax this class. Louis entered right before the bell rang and placed himself next to Stan. The Norwegian fella didn’t notice the Donny bloke, so he was not stop shaking. 

“Hi Stan, are you… like... okay? You seem sick or something”. Stan didn’t notice the comment, he was turning whiter and whiter. Before he knew it, he started losing his sight. The blackboard was slowly getting more faded for each second and the sounds around him was fading as well. He was soon not hearing a thing and his sight was as black as a bulletproof van.   
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠  
When Stan woke up, he saw Louis asleep in a chair next to him. He didn’t understand where he was at first, but he started to recognise the place. He was back at the nurses office. Oh my holy moly macaroni, how the fabballs did he get here again? Oh gad, he fainted once again, and this time in class. How embarrassing. Now he would be known as the freak or something, the one who faint for nothing or the one searching attention all the time. 

Why Louis was here, he was not sure of, but all he know was that he had been out for hours. The time was around 3 O’clock, and the English class started at 10:50 am. That’s nearly four hours, wow. Had Louis been here all the time or… he didn’t understand why he was here at all, they had hung together once and shared some classes together, but they weren’t close exactly. It was all a mystery to him. 

Louis woke up and actually looking happy and relieved to see Stan awake. “How are you feeling mate?” Stan was not sure how he felt, but it was not bad. “Well, I’m not feeling bad or anything, so hopefully I can leave here. How long have you been here?” Louis smiled by his reply and only answered Stan’s question with a “I don’t know”. 

Stan talked to the nurse, who did some check-ups to be sure Stan was fine. He got some pills he had to take daily for a week and a very concerned “be careful” from her. Stan and Louis headed against their dorm rooms, with Louis trying to convince Stan to not attend practice today. Stan said it was nothing to worry about, being his stubborn self, so they both grabbed their bags. 

Practice was quite fun, the two “youngsters” being brilliant and dominating once again. They got some annoyed looks from the older kids, but the two were having such a great time. They both scored loads of times and served assists to each other throughout the practice matches. Some of the older students started to get rough in their tackles, but Mr. Gimwick benched them all because of them. He was quite extraordinary as a coach, he was very clear when it came to fair play and stuff. Stan was very grateful for this, because he could only imagine if he was like his last coach.

After the two lads had changed, Louis once again asked if Stan wanted to hang. Stan really wanted to, but he had already made plans with both Liam and Malin. He also had to study for his Spanish test next week, which was so boring and lame, but he had to do it. So they parted ways, Louis giving his number to Stan, which “had to send me message, so I can save your number”. Well, fair enough Stan thought. 

When Stan met up with Malin, she was all excited and happy. When he asked why, she didn’t want to tell him. He kept asking and begging her to tell, because he hated to not know stuff. She kept refusing to tell why, but it looked like she was dying to tell him. At last, she busted out that she was going on a date with Liam. Stan smirked and replied with a “no problem”. Malin dived into a hug, which caught Stan off guard. He was not used to get hugs, and he and Malin was not that close yet, were they? 

They were supposed to talk about Louis, but it ended up Malin talking about how nervous she was and all. Stan only sat there and nodded and smiling. He was genuinely happy for her, and also for Liam. He texted him, hopefully without getting noticed by Malin. 

“Nice going mate, Malin is all excited.”  
“Oh… yeah… uhm…”  
“Can we talk tomorrow? I don’t want to just leave her when she’s in a good mood.”  
“Okay, but we need to talk. Talk to you 2morrow mate, sleep well :)”  
“Nighty buddy, sleep tight o:)”

Malin was still talking, freaking out and being happy at the same time. Stan tried his best to relax her, but he was not great at handling situations like this. He was not used to have friends, so these kind of “problems” was not something he had delft with before. He was just so happy for her, because she had been so nice to him and all. He was just having a strange feeling… just… he didn’t know what it was, he just felt empty and sad-ish. 

Back in his room, he was dying to get some sleep. What a day it had been, he was exhausted. He felt it in his whole body, that he had slept less than he usually did, which already was way too little. He tried, and tried, but it seemed impossible to fall asleep tonight as well. He checked the time, and it was already 3 AM. Hopefully the school day that waited for him would be over really fast, because then he would have a whole weekend to catch up on the lost sleep and maybe gather some energy. He was thinking about all of this when he slowly started to doze off. Finally, he was sound asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SOOOOO SORRY FOR MAKING YOU WAIT SO LONG. It's been over four weeks. I have been having writer's block, and school stuff, and other stuff that..yeah.. idk I haven't been able to write. But now, finally, here's the next chapter. 
> 
> To clear something up, the school system I use in this story, is just pure fiction. I have no idea where I got the idea ahha. Year 1 is when you're 14, Year 2 = 15 years and yeah... this means you will be 19 in Year 6, which is the last year. We're either 19 or turning 19 at the youngest here in Norway, the last of high school. 
> 
> I know this chapter isn't the best, but as I said, I have been having writer's block. I hope you don't hate it too much! 
> 
> Okay, bye loves xx


	7. Chapter Seven

Stan woke up to the sound of something horrendous. He really didn’t want to open his eyes, so he tried to close them ever more. He rolled over, he really just wished this day could end already. In the back of his mind, the thought that after today was finally the arrival of the weekend, pinched him. “Oh heck, stay strong, only few hours and then it’s no school for two and a half day”. 

Stan rolled on his side and grabbed his phone from under the pillow. The time showed 7:34 AM which meant he had less than half an hour to get ready and be in class. He was going to get up at some point, so he concluded he just had to do it. Simple, but horrendous. 

When he sat up, he smelled food. He could see the British lad he shared room with, standing fully dressed and ready to go. He was holding a paper bag and a coffee cup in his hands. He smiled brightly to Stan when he noticed he was awake. Stan still wasn’t used to this, waking up with another person in the room, and even more unusual was that the person was happy and kind. Back at home, it was always yelling, fighting and something being broken. He could probably be used to this, but it still felt weird as few other things.

“Hello there sleepyhead. I brought a couple of croissants and a cuppa coffee, with sugar and milk. I know you like it like that.” Harry was unbelievable kind, Stan couldn’t understand it. Why? Why was he kind? Why was he so kind with him? Maybe it was Stan was smarter than most, and he could help him with his homework, and this was how he made up for it? Hmm, he figured this probably was the reason.

“Oh, that was kind of you, you shouldn’t have…but thank you mate”. Stan looked at the food and realised he actually had to eat it. They had the first class together, and Harry would probably want to walk over there together. He couldn’t just say he would eat it on his way to class. He was very grateful for the coffee, because he wasn’t functional without his morning coffee. 

Stan picked some random clothes from his drawer and went to the bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror, which made him jump. He noticed some scratch marks on his arms, and he knew what had happened. He could feel the marks all over his body – some of them was even hurting. It had been one of “those nights”. He quickly got dressed; he didn’t want to see it anymore. The outfit of the day was a tank-shirt that said “PUNK ROCK HEAVY METAL”, a green Adidas hoodie (which was kind of comfy, but at the same time it fitted Stan’s body), and a pair of grey half-baggie-comfy sweatpants-ish pants. 

When he was finished, the time was 7:50 AM, which meant he didn’t have the time to fix his hair. Thankfully, some unknown genius had made beanies. He grabbed his favourite, a grey one he bought last year in Oslo, and slipped into dark-green-ish Vans. Harry was ready, probably a bit stressed that they would be late for their Geography class. Ms. Wood was never happy when someone showed up late, and he was not intending to be one of those EVER (again heh). Stan could see it in Harry’s eyes; he was defiantly stressed. 

On their way to class, they met up with Malin, Ina, JJ, Josh and Zayn. Stan was thankfully for the fact that they had geography now, something he usually didn’t feel was torture. His eyes felt really heavy and he struggled to keep them open. Gee, couldn’t this day be over so he could go back to sleep? And could he please not eat this food? Breakfast was the worst meal of the day, absolutely the worst. He took a bit, trying to not show the disgrace – he really didn’t want to hurt or offend Harry in any way. He walked alone in the back though, so hopefully nobody saw how he reacted. 

The gang arrived just in the nick of time, Ms. Wood was just about to start the class when they had taken their seats. Stan probably imagined it, but he felt like Ms. Wood was staring at him – in a you-are-such-a-little-stuck-up-twat-know-it-all-one-way. Probably, for some reason, she wasn’t quite happy about the sassy impression he made the last time. Well, when did he actually care about what some stuck-up teachers thought of him? If they were basing his grades on his attitude, he would say something, and that never ended in a good way – for the teachers that is.

As the class went by, Ms. Wood kept avoiding asking Stan for the answers, even though he was the only one that knew the answer. He really HATED those kind of teachers, because why are they asking, when they are going to answer it themselves anyway? He could understand if they chose someone else to answer for time to time, but if he is the only one, why not let him answer. He swore to everything evil in this world, that they all hated him and were plotting something against him. 

Stan was still able to annoy Ms. Wood multiple times before the class ended. He corrected her, or specified what she said – and he even did what most teachers and school staff fear their students will do; talk about the law. Harry only grinned, while Malin and Ina was giggling. Zayn was trying to be “just as cool” as Stan by commenting some of what their teacher said, but he only made a fool of himself. JJ and Josh both sat with their mouths open, and you could see it in their eyes – HOW does he have the courage and how the heck does he has the knowledge?” 

If there was something he loved to, was to read and study whatever law he knew could be useful to know. Like, every single law that said anything about which rights students had, what rights teachers and school staff had and loads more. One of his dream jobs, was to be a lawyer, but if he actually was going to study to be one, was unsure. However, whenever he got the opportunity, he would remind (especially the teachers) everyone about the law. Back in Norway, in his last school, before he was transferred here to Eastern Sherwood Boarding School. 

In the break, which seemed to be over just as fast as it started, he and JJ parted ways with their mates. Mrs. Barkley and sociology were next on their schedule, which made Stan’s heart skip a beat. 

Stan and JJ were talking about how much they were looking forward to the weekend, while Mrs. Barkley entered the room. It felt like the temperature fell by twenty degrees, because nobody seemed like having socio today. Less than usual, which said a lot. Today’s subject was, well, Stan was so tired and his focus level was on zero point zero – he really did not know. He only sat there silently and stared out the window, with small breaks where he looked around in the classroom. JJ did notice this, but he didn’t ask – but that was because he knew how Mrs. Barkley reacted to small talk and stuff in her class. 

JJ didn’t waste anytime after class though, especially when it looked like Stan still was looking around, just as he was searching through the crowd for someone. “Stan, who the heck are you looking for?” Stan was caught off guard by his question, but he managed to answer with a little “no-one”. JJ only wrinkled his nose, like he wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure? You have been looking like that the whole freaking class”. Stan hadn’t been looking for no-one, he was just curious why Louis didn’t show up. He just shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the cantina.

Stan’s curiosity made him wonder even more, where Louis had been. After sitting still for like five minutes, he left the table without saying anything. The others looked a bit confused and a bit worried, but nobody was quick enough to react or ask any questions. On the other hand, they were used to him leaving early, but this was much earlier than before. Stan did not care to be honest, he just wanted to find out where Louis was.

He checked some of the classrooms, in the study hall and the library, with no luck. He decided to check the locker rooms and the football field, because Louis was after all, a total sports freak. He thought Louis was the kind of person who went to work out or something when he had spare time, or if he wanted to clear his mind. Or, that was the kind of things Stan would do, and maybe he wasn’t the only one. 

When Stan entered the last locker room, he had almost given up, because all the other rooms had been empty (and there were quite loads of them). But he smiled a bit, when he saw a bag and some shoes n’ stuff in the inner corner. So he walked (more liked ran) out to the football field, where he indeed found one Mr. Tomlinson. It looks like he was frustrated, because his shots were off and he looked like he was about to cry. Not like the sad-crying, but the one when you feel everything and everyone is against you. 

Stan was not sure if he should approach him or say anything, and if he was going to, what was he going to say? He ended up standing still in his spot for probably five minutes, until Louis noticed his presence. Louis stopped and looked like he had a panic attack or something, because his eyes shrimped. “How long have you been standing there?” the Donny lad asked. “Only a few minutes”. 

“Oh… did you see… oh.” Louis realised that he just had exposed himself to someone else. Stan was worried, because this was nothing like Louis, or at least what he had been this first few days he had known him. Stan felt like he couldn’t say he knew him, because this showed there were a lot more to it. He walked down to Louis, still not sure what to say.  
“I suppose you wonder why I’m here and all.” Stan only nodded his head to agree. “I was a bit worried, since you didn’t attend to sociology and all.” Louis widened his eyes, just as he couldn’t understand that anyone actually noticed and was worried for him. “It’s nothing, it’s just one of those days. I can’t sit still and I can’t focus, I usually need to clear my mind. Football is what I end up doing most of the times. Today that didn’t work, I can’t make a single useful shot.” 

“But, I won’t bother you with this, and you have class in like five minutes, you really need to go. I don’t want you to get in trouble, especially because of me.” Louis’ face missed a bit of its usual glow, but his eyes still sparkled. Stan didn’t really think, but before he knew it, he was stroking the British lad’s back, trying to comfort him. Louis did see a bit surprised, but he smiled like he was truly grateful. “Don’t you worry about me, Louis. I can see you need to talk with someone, and I can’t walk away from a person who needs me. Anyway, it’s just math, and the last time I checked I was the next Einstein.” That made Louis laugh, which made Stan smile once again.  
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠  
The two blokes went back to Stan’s room. First they just talked about football, but after a while, they started to talk about their home towns. Louis was fascinated by the fact that Stan actually was from Norway, and from such a little place. Louis was from Doncaster, which is a small city in comparison to London and stuff, but it was a huge city compared to Bardufoss. Louis did also compliment Stan for his English, told him that his accent was quite northern and he would fool anyone. 

After a while, the two lads decided that they should attend their music class, which they both had together. Stan was happy that Louis was coming along, as this would be his first class in music, since their lessons on Tuesday were cancelled. He really didn’t want to be alone for a whole class, as no-one in his gang did attend music. 

Mr. Orwell was quite the extraordinary teacher. He dressed like a homeless, but at the same time a wealthy homeless. He was bald on the top of his head, but he had medium long hair around his ears and on the back. The way Mr. Orwell liked to teach, was through improvising and demonstration, so he sang a lot. Stan thought he was quite the odd one, but he really did appreciate a colourful character in this grey, strict place. Mr. Orwell wished them all a great weekend, and said that his students should start thinking about the auditions for their winter musical. 

Stan and Louis were both unsure if they should audition, but it was thankfully still a couple of weeks left to decide. The lads walked together for a while, only talking about how happy they were to not have school tomorrow. What Louis loved the most, was the fact that they were allowed to NOT wear the stupid school uniform. Stan agreed, but with a bittersweet smile. He still had a class with English for the non-native students. He waved Louis goodbye, before heading towards the last forty-five minutes of torture. 

As he sat there in the classroom filled with some random strangers, who all SUCKED at English, he counted the minutes. He would soon be able to dress as he wants, to ignore people for some days and to just sleep in tomorrow. He did answer a couple of questions, to spend some of the time on something useful. When the time was 4 o’clock, their teacher, Mr. Indigo, said that he understood that they all wanted to go. He said that everyone who could write down the correct answer to a question, could go early. “Which two countries share the same monarch, but are separated by an ocean?” Really easy question, thank goodness. He scribbled down “The United Kingdom and Canada” and left soon after. 

On his way back to his room, he met Liam. His whole body felt heavier, as he knew they were going to have the talk about Louis. So he thought to himself, let us just get it out of the way. Liam didn’t say anything, but he nodded to agree. “Yeah… it’s not like I’m going to stand here for hours, but I feel you have to know some of the most important details.” 

“You see, there are two things that make us in the gang, uhm… well… sceptical. First of all, he is best friends with Viljar, who actually is half Norwegian. Viljar and Malin did have something going on, being flirty and all, but in the end, he was just a douche. When he was like away on vacation and stuff, he wanted to do loads of things with Malin, but when he returned back home, it was just as they never had talked. A vital point here, is the fact he flirted and spent loads of time with his ex-girlfriend when he was away.” Stan sat with his mouth open, what the actually hell, but why be mad at Louis for that?

“Louis did like, hook Viljar up with some girls at parties and stuff. Malin was really sad and hurt, and we all just got mad at him. And there’s like… his sport-jock-friends did bully me, Niall and Harry for years, they are still doing it… and…” Liam’s voice got weaker, obviously he was talking about a sensitive subject. “Ehm… yeah, Louis just stood there, time after time, he didn’t say anything. In my opinion, that is just as horrible as actually doing the bullying.” Liam looked at Stan, and Stan didn’t know how to react. 

“I’m sorry, I just thought you should know. I’m not telling you to stop being his friend, but I don’t want to see you hurt or anything.” Stan was really trying to process all this, it was so much all at the same time. “I’m just so… shocked and overwhelmed by all this… I’m sorry, I need some time to gather my thought and stuff… but thank you for telling me, I really appreciate it Liam. You’re a good mate, talk to you later, okay?” Liam seemed like he understood. “Sure mate, take care. And oh… thank you for all you have done for me… you know, with Malin… our date went amazingly last night. But I’ll tell you more about that later!” 

When Stan finally could return to his room, Harry was laying in his bed, doing some relaxing. He smiled to Stan, but quickly got his worried-look. “What’s wrong mate? You look totally beaten up.” Stan was not sure if he should tell that he knew about the bullying and stuff, but he did, for once, share some of his thoughts. Harry looked a bit relieved that Stan knew, because he really didn’t want to be the one who tell him. 

“Well, thank you for sharing your thoughts, I feel honoured that you feel like you can trust me, or at least talk to me. You know, I have been a bit worried that I had done or said anything wrong, but I guess it takes time before you open up to people.” Stan only nodded as an answer. He was happy that he could talk to Harry and that they got along so well. He really wanted to sleep, but instead he asked if Harry wanted to play some card games. Harry smiled and picked up a deck from his drawer.

The two lads played for a while, laughed and just talked about their week. Harry had been dying to know more about Norway, about how the move was, and how his first week had been. Harry shared some gossip from the past couple of years, trying to help Stan catching up. One of the most interesting things he learned was about past relationships, like how Zayn and Ina used to date, or about the rumour that Luke and Ashton were in a secret relationship. 

When Stan was in the middle of telling about his last school was, and the difference from this school, he got a text message. He stopped talking to read it, and he never continued. He froze and his face got whiter by the second. When Harry asked what was wrong, he couldn’t speak. He just sat there in shock. All of a sudden, he ran out of the room, making Harry jump and left in a shock. Stan ran and ran, his eyes filled with tears. He couldn’t deal with it, why was this happening? His day was starting to get good, and then it all got wrecked. The message was a picture of a door, but not just any door. The door had the name tags “Harry Edward Styles” and “Stian Lindberg” on it, which freak Stan out.

“Watch out – you will never feel safe again you little stuck up twat. You will get as you deserve, wherever you hide.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sooo, sooo, soooo sorry for being the worst updater ever. It's just I got so much on my plate right now, loads of school work and stuff, so I don't have the time or the strength to write. I promise when I'm done with my exams and stuff, I will be better, so just stay tuned. I really do appreciate all the lovely comments, I can't believe that people actually like this story - it really does motivate me to keep writing!
> 
> (Sorry if I'm being a bit way to sassy, especially towards Zayn, in this chapter...)


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry it has been so long!

The following hours were only a huge blur to Stan. He ended up sitting in a corner, underneath a staircase, were nobody could see him. He cried and he cried, and he almost stopped breathing from time to time. He had a panic attack or a stress attack or he didn’t know, but he was breathing faster and faster, and it felt like he was going to rip his hair off. He was not able to sit still at all, he was not sure what to do, what to think or how to react. His thoughts went from being scared, from being worried, from thinking he was silly and overreacting, back to being scared – over and over again. 

All of a sudden, he heard a voice, and by the little he could judge of it, it was someone familiar. He tried to calm himself down, he really didn’t want to be seem by anyone, he didn’t want anyone to worry or laugh or to spread rumours about him. Whoever the person was, was defiantly someone he knew, because through the teary eyes, he could see a person coming in for a hug. He embraced it and just closed his eyes, and thanked the person for just being there. 

Much to his surprise, it wasn’t Harry as he thought, as he was the last to see him before the text messages. It was none other than the Donny lad that kept showing up in his life. Louis’ hug felt incredibly good and he realised it helped a lot. Actually, he was calming down, and he felt weird about that, because usually he needed loads more time to do that. Louis hadn’t said a single word, but Stan was calming down more and more by the minute. Really strange, but he was relieved and grateful. 

“Thanks… I… I needed that.” Stan finally managed to mumble some words out. Louis was sitting next to him, just stroking his back to make sure he felt safe. “What happened, if I may ask? You really don’t need to talk about it, if you don’t want to.” Stan tried to make up his mind, or whether he was going to talk or just tell a little white lie. He ended up showing the text messages, which Louis responded by giving him another hug followed by “I will protect you if you need me to”. 

The two lads walked to the study hall, just to clear their (Stan’s) thoughts, not really saying anything. Stan hated awkward silences, ending with him breaking the silence. “What time is it, I have lost track of the time” he asked, which was not a joke, because he really did lose track of the time during his breakdown. “It’s uhm… half past three”. The last time Stan checked the time, it was soon eleven. 

“Why are you awake at this time? And why did you leave your room?” Louis just grinned. Stan was unsure if he had asked about something Louis didn’t want to talk about, but he did grin, so it made no sense in his mind. Louis grinned a bit more, before he spoke to answer the questions. “I couldn’t sleep, and I was just going for a walk, because I usually manage to calm myself down that way.” Stan smiled a bit, because that was his routine as well. He really did understand, and he felt Louis understood him as well. 

“I think we both need to get some sleep now, and we are not actually allowed to be wandering around in the school at this time at night.” Louis looked tired, but he looked just as concerned. Stan felt his conscious getting worse, he really felt bad for keeping him awake, probably annoyed him to death inside. “Yeah, I think so too. Good night, Lou, I really do appreciate what you did for me.” Louis smiled, but still looked a bit worried. “Sure, what are mates for? If you need to talk or anything, I’m always free, just knock on my door or send me a text, I’ll be ready. And uhm… sorry if you felt uncomfortable about my hugs, but that’s the only way I know how to calm people. Good night, talk to ya later!”.

Stan returned to his room, and thankfully Harry was sound asleep. He really didn’t feel like talking about it right now, he just wanted to sleep. But he couldn’t fall asleep, it seemed to be impossible. He tried lying on his left side, his right side, on his stomach and on his back, but nothing seemed to work. The effects from the breakdown was still affecting him, and he kept thinking about everything. The move, the teachers, his new friends, his roomie, this school, the football team, Louis, the homework, the roof, the text messages and the breakdown. Especially what the Doncaster bloke had said about his hugs being uncomfortable and all. Usually he would have hated it, but tonight felt different, and he actually enjoyed it and appreciated it. 

This was how the night went on; Stan trying to find a position that was comfortable, trying to not think about everything, but ended up being stressed up by them all. The last few days had been filled with loads of impressions and new situations. He was not used to it, and he felt tired, or… more exhausted. Hopefully this was just in the start and everything would fall into pieces again. But for now, he was trying to cope with the fact he wasn’t going to sleep at all this night, not even a single minute.   
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠  
The following morning started early for him, as he had been awake the whole night. He looked at his phone and the time showed that it was barely past 6. He decided to take a shower, now when very few people was awake and not that many of the other students from year three would be in the showers. He fetched a towel, and some clothes for the day. He felt like wearing some comfy clothes this Saturday, spending most of his day in his room doing nothing. 

The hallway was a bit chilly so early in the morning, but thankfully he had quite a short walk till he reached the showers. He was the only person there, which he was thankful for. He took a quick shower and dressed up in his chilling clothes. A pair of grey sweat pants and a simple white t-shirt with his anchor neckless. He went down to the cafeteria to just kill some time, he was not actually going to eat breakfast. He did pick up some bagels and cuppa coffee for Harry, as well as a cuppa tea for himself. 

Back in his room Harry was awake, but he hadn’t moved from his bed. He was a bit surprised to see his roomie being awake already, fully dressed and he’d brought food. It was clear to Stan that Harry both was shocked, confused and reaaaally tired. 

“I brought to breakfast, bagels and coffee. Here you go mate!” Stan was giving the British lad a huge, genuine smile. Finally he was able to bring breakfast to Harry, who’d been doing that all weekend. The young Cheshire lad just looked more confused by the second, he didn’t quite understand what was going on with his roomie. He smiled after a while, got dressed and enjoyed his breakfast. 

“Stan?” Harry looked at Stan with a huge grin. The Norwegian bloke started to get kind of worried, but nodded as he wanted him to continue. “Today we’re gonna do stuff, and not hide inside our little cave here.” Without getting the chance to ask, Harry dragged him out the door and they headed toward the outside area. 

Outside the whole gang was gathered, just chilling with a lovely picnic. Stan thought this was something that was totally out of line for a boarder school, but he quickly understood this was normal standard at this school. Weird, but nice he thought to himself. He ended up sitting next to Malin, Liam and Harry. Which was weird, because Ina and Malin always sat together. First he thought it was because everything was going so good between Liam and Malin, which they were. Liam was stroking her hand from time to hand, casually trying to make it seem like an accident. He even poked her in the side, in her cheek and was all flirty. Malin giggled a bit, trying to “make him stop”, aka she indicated that she liked it.

The reason why Malin and Ina didn’t sit together was because of a fight. Apparently they had been losing the bond they used to have, and Ina was spending more and more time with Zayn (who already was not welcomed to the group after he beat up JJ and loads more). At one point Malin had told Ina that she was sick of being ignored and being her second choice, which Ina had answered with “I have nothing to do with you anymore.” 

So at the picnic the mood in the gang was not as good as it looked, which Stan felt. He went along with Ashton and Luke to grab a soda from the soda machine, which gave him the opportunity to talk to Ash and Luke more. All he knew was that both was interested in football and they had shared a convo about that earlier. 

“Wow, such intense electric feel between those two, nobody is acting like themselves at the moment.” Stan had to share his thoughts, it was killing him. Ashton spoke next, with his Aussie accent. “Yeah, they two have had a rough friendship, it’s not unusual that they fight from time to time.” Luke nodded in agreement, before adding “But this is like never before, I’m not even sure they’ll ever be friends again”. Stan didn’t know how to react, but they all returned back the squad.

Stan was not feeling like himself this day, as the result of lack of sleep. He did by a coincidence overhear a comment Ina made about Malin, while she was talking on the phone. He was not the person to let his friends get hurt or talked badly about, but he usually didn’t have the courage to say something. Maybe it was the sleepless night or the kind feeling he had today, but he opened his mouth and spoke. Especially when he saw how such a great time Malin and Liam had together, they looked like a couple.

“Ina, Ina. Excuse you, but you’re not going to stand there and talk shit about my friend, especially when she’s sitting here. I really think you should leave, you’re ruining the day for all of us by being such a stuck up little moron.” Everyone just looked shocked at him, like no-one had ever expected something like that from him. Ina just walked backward slowly, probably in shock as well. After that episode, everyone just parted ways, because the mood was horrible in the group and everyone was in shock.   
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠  
On the evening Stian, Calum, Liam, Michael, Ashton and Luke was outside playing football. They were really just kicking the ball around, even though they knew they had curfew in only ten minutes. It was nice though, just kicking the ball around chilling with the lads, this never happened back in Norway. Stan usually didn’t get well on with other blokes, most of his friends were gals. He figured out he liked people who was calm and didn’t make him even more unsure of himself, and mostly girls were this kind of person. 

When they finally decided it was time to head back because of the curfew, he walked alongside Luke and Michael. They were only chitchatting about school, the teachers and football… mostly ordinary subjects for teens. Louis appeared in front of him, on his way to the field, or at least that’s what Stan thought. All the other lads just looked at him, they started to act so weird and just let him through. 

“Just go ahead, I’ll catch up to ya” Stan really wanted to talk the Donny bloke. Ashton stopped as the others went along. “You sure mate? Do you want me to join you?” Stan only shook his head and told him it was fine, which Ashton sceptical accepted. 

Stan was right, Louis was kicking the ball towards a wall, as the footie he was. He looked so different than he usually did, not that Stan had seem him that much. When he played football it was like he had a calm soul or something, and his whole body looked so… right. He had no other way to describe it, but it made him smile. 

“Stan, what are you staring at mate? Shouldn’t you be heading towards the room now yeah? Stan had been caught staring at someone, how embarrassing. He quickly tried to improvise, which he thankfully was good at. “Eh sorry I’m just a bit tired, and yeah I am soon. Why are you here now, and aren’t you going to your room too?” 

“Yeah mate, I just need to take my mind of everything for a moment. If I get caught, it will be worth it. I don’t know how I ever will relax my mind without kicking the ball around for a bit you know?” Stan looked concerned and was arguing with himself whether he should head back and leave the British lad alone, or if he should stay to help comforting. 

“So what’s on your mind mate? Something I can do?” Louis only looked up at him, smiled and continued to kick the ball. After five minutes or so, he stopped and laid down in the grass. Stan followed along and took his place beside Louis in the grass. “Naah, it’s just weird now. I found out how Viljar have been acting and all, and all my friends are not my friends, so I’m quite alone now. It’s unusual for me.” 

“What you do mean Louis?” Stan was looking more confused more than ever. “I ended up fighting, like punching and all, with Viljar, which ended in him being all knocked out and me being friendless. I’m so used to have people around me, that the last 24 hours have been so weird and empty.”

Stan didn’t want to bother him to much, he just leaned in and hugged his mate. After this it was silent, they just sat there and looked at the stunning night sky with all the stars and the full moon. Louis leaned his head to Stan’s shoulder and just stayed in that position. Stan did not mind at all, but his heart started racing. Never had he felt like this, and he did not know what the feeling was. 

His eyes started close, but he fought to not fall asleep. Louis felt the same fight with his eyes, so they decided to return back to their bed. Stan was going to part way with Louis, but he noticed the boy’s eyes starting to tear up, so he followed him back to his room. Luckily in this situation Louis had no-one to share his room with, so they didn’t wake up anyone. 

They entered the room and Louis started to get ready to sleep. Stan just went a quick trip to the loo, before he went back to his and Harry’s room. He didn’t want to make more noise than necessary when he returned this late. To his surprise and worry, he came out from the loo to a crying Louis. The Donny lad was lying as a ball and crying in his bed. Stan went straight to him, and tried to comfort him and relax him, before he said “I’ll go find the guard or the nurse okay?”

Louis quickly grabbed his hand, stopping Stan from leaving. “No, don’t leave. I just…can you just… lay here with me? Please?” Stan looked at Louis, the normally so confident, strong lad was not to be recognized. His eyes were teary and filled with pain and fear. Stan only nodded, smiled and laid down in Louis’ bed and held around him. He noticed the other boy calm down, but he was still shaking. They both was totally quiet, but they both soon were sound asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really, the last couple of months have been suuuperbusy, with school, exams, drama, politics etc. Now I have summer break and like.. I have loads of time and I even have tons of inspo from all the concerts I have been to, so stay tuned!
> 
> I know it's not the best chapter, but from now on I promise it will be better!


	9. Chapter Nine

All of a sudden Stan woke up, wondering the hell he was. It was dark, but it kinda looked like his room. But it wasn’t and he fast noticed that another person laid next to him in bed. He then remembered the crying Louis who almost begged him to stay, and that he was indeed in the Doncaster lad’s room. 

He managed to fish up his phone to find out that the time was only 3 in the middle of then night. Stan was really hoping to get some more sleep, but sharing a bed build for one person was not the best place to sleep. He tried and struggled, but he never found a comfortable position. Slowly he gave up.

The Norwegian lad ended up creeping on Louis sleeping. He just looked at him. His hair was really messy, but it looked good at him. His eyes were closed with his long eye-lashes touching his smoothly looking skin. His mouth was a bit opened, which looked a bit weird, but kinda adorable. 

He felt guilty and creepy and ashamed as he noticed the other bloke had removed a bit of his duvet during the night, so his chest and belly was showing. As Stan noticed was that the British boy was indeed in a really great shape, but then he snapped as why the frick he was doing this.

The final attempt he did actually turned out to work, as he finally could fall asleep once again. Both boys were sound asleep and slept in, as they both were really exhausted.  
The following morning was indeed a bit weird, waking up in the bed he shared with someone else. When he woke up, Louis was already awake and his eyes met him good morning. “Ehh good morning. What… what are you looking at?” Louis’ eyes widen, as he seemed a bit caught off guard by the question.

“I’m… I don’t know to be honest”. Stan only grinned at the other lad. He checked his phone, and the time showed 1 PM and they both only laughed. “I think I might have to get back to my room, I guess Harry is confused where I am.” Louis only nodded in agreement. 

As he left the room he could not really believe what happened, and that he was leaving Louis’ room after spending the night in the bed with him. Of course, if you leave out the part Louis was sad and cried and asked him to stay, and the fact he wore all his clothes the night through, it would sound like something completely different. 

As he entered his room, Harry wasn’t there. Great, then he had more time to come up with an explanation for where he was during the night. He thought that a shower was a great idea, so he grabbed some clothes and waltzed away towards the showers. 

Much to his liking, nobody was currently in the Year Three shower area, which he thought was rarely. But then again, how many did shower at 1PM? He just felt filthy after sleeping in his clothes and not doing his regular routine with cleaning and stuff. 

This shower felt like the best shower in a long way, and he was met by another lad’s present. He didn’t recognise to other boy at first, but when he realised who it was, he froze. He suddenly understood who had sent those text messages. None other than the devil himself, Marcus. Stan was going to die now, he was freaking out. 

Marcus was in the gang who used to bully him back at home, and was the leader of the group. He was actually originally from Birmingham, but his mum left his dad and moved to Norway with her new Norwegian boyfriend. Marcus was only a little kid when that happened, as Stan can remember him way back to 1st grade. 

“Hello there Stan, what a coincidence to meet you here in the shower area on Eastern Sherwood Boarding School where I just happened to just been transferred to. I had NOO idea that you were going here as well, what a total shocker”. Stan smelt the sarcasm and could probably have smelt it miles away. “What are you doing here?” he only asked with fear in his voice.

“Oh me? I just begged my mum to move back to England, and she finally gave in. She thought that it was a good idea for me to attend to a boarding school to straighten me up. She can be a little naïve.” His smirk wanted to make Stan puke, and Marcus knew so as well. “You really didn’t think that you would get away with it, did you really? And that we made your parents think you were such a naughty boy, was not what we meant by getting revenge. That was only step one, so be prepared. Have a good day, I’ll see you around.” Marcus smirked even more than before, before making his exit.

Stan was left behind having trouble with breathing. He managed to get dressed and tried to make his way back to the dorm, but he collapsed on the floor in the hallway. Nobody seemed to be around, but he was slightly wrong about that. Only few moments after his collapse, a girl with black and a bit blonde hair appeared. Stan didn’t notice her, maybe she was someone younger or older than him.

“Are you okay mate?” Stan only nodded, even though he wasn’t that find. He was feeling better though, he managed to breath normally again, but his mind was just like Titanic that just hit the iceberg – it was sinking down badly. “You sure, because you don’t look so well.” The girl smiled with a concern look in her face. “Yeah, I don’t know what happened. It’s fine thank you.” 

“Aren’t you that foreign boy from Norway? The one Malin has mentioned a couple of times… uhm Stan right?” He stood there standing for a bit, and was trying to figure out why she would ask, why she knew Malin and why Malin had mentioned him in the first place. “Yes, that is me, the last time I checked at least.” The gal giggled a bit, Stan not too sure if she actually found that funny or just giggled because it was silly. 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Marina and I’m Malin’s new roommate. I just transferred here on Thursday, so you’re not the new kid anymore! Malin told me you came here on Monday… well I guess you are the new kid still, just not the newest kid!” The girl laughed afterwards, gave him a smile and waved him “good bye”. What was that all about? It was kind of weird, but he liked weird, so he had a good first impression of Marina. But “new roommate?” what happened to Ina?   
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠  
While sitting in the cafeteria with Ashton and Luke and some others people from Year Four, Stan was thinking about what he was going to say to Harry about his not-being in their room this night. He was so lost in his thoughts, that he didn’t notice that Niall joined them. He reacted to Niall’s third attempt to get his attention, that Niall only raised his eyebrows to. “Mate, have you heard what happened last night?”

Stan only looked confused on the Irish lad, which made Niall only continue his little story. “So basically after your little confrontation with Ina, she decided to transfer to another boarding school. Don’t worry about it, she has been thinking about it for a while, it’s not your fault, you only speeded the process.” Stan still looked confused, and a bit shocked at the other boy. “Wow, that’s… I did not see that coming.”

“That’s not all. Apparently she and Zayn actually have been secretly seeing each other after their split, and are back together. So Zayn went crazy on Josh and Liam, so he basically transferred along with Ina. So Malin is now roomie with a new girl named Marina, and Liam is roomie with this new lad called Marcus or something.” Stan froze by the last sentence. “Did you just say Liam is sharing a room with Marcus?” Niall nodded his head like nothing big was going on, and he didn’t know anything of course. 

He tried to act normal about it, just continued his dinner. Then Harry joined them, just looking at Stan straight away. “Where the frick have you been? I haven’t seen you in like a day, and you’re bed has not been slept in tonight.” Before he was able to answer anything, a girl named Bella walked passed them. “Hi Stan” she said and gave him a little wink. What the… Harry and Niall noticed as well and just looked shocked. “You didn’t… omg you did, didn’t you? I can’t believe you spent the night with Bella!” 

Stan only looked caught off guard, but quickly recoverd. “I wasn’t” Harry stopped him before he managed to say anything “Don’t’ you even try, congrats mate. I didn’t know you actually were flirting with anyone, and already spending the night, and with BELLA?!” Bella was in year four with Luke, Calum, Ashton and Michael, but it seemed like every single boy would love to date her. Her beauty was not to deny, even the year five and six did want her. 

Stan was not really sure Bella was, he only met her for the first time like twenty minutes ago. He really didn’t know why she had said hello to him, and only him, but they had never spoke a word to each other. Luke had introduced their names when they started dinner, but that’s it. What a weird day, so much happening. First waking up in Louis’ room, then meeting Marcus who had transferred here, who was the new roomie with Liam, after Zayn transferring with Ina, who was done with this place after the confrontation Stan did, and that left Malin roommates with that new girl, Marina, who was a bit weird, but that Stan liked so far. Wow, this could be a new reality show.

He and Harry returned to their room, just tried to relax and gather up some strength and power for the following week. They both were exhausted, even though it had been a weekend. So much drama and so much that had been going on, it would need a vacation to help them heal fully. Unfortunately they only had a few hours left till bedtime, and soon after that it was time for hell again. 

Harry spoke with his parents on the phone for quite some time, while Stan was trying to get his shit together. All of these happenings and the last week had taken a really great hit on him, and he was just ready to die right there in his bed. Which he didn’t, but he ended up falling asleep way too early for normal teenagers.   
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠  
Waking up to Harry’s alarm clock was far from the best he knew, but at least it played from the radio and not that pounding alarm sound. He looked at his phone, which showed that he for once had woke up to a decent time. Harry was not even up from his bed yet, which was unusual. They both looked like they had been fighting in a war, but they managed to get ready. Harry and Stan was walking down to the cafeteria to get something to eat, which was very weird for Stan. 

They entered the cafeteria, which was pretty crowded. It was not as many as during lunch or dinner, but still quite loads of people. The cafeteria could usually room about five hundred students, which was only a small amount out of the student mass. They spotted Niall, who not surprisingly already was stuffing his face full, and Liam along with Calum and Ashton. Stan and Harry grabbed got in line and joined them soon after. Stan was only having a cup of coffee as usual, he really needed it. 

“Are you ever going to stop eating? It’s like your third helping, and your helpings are unusual huge.” Liam almost looked irritated, but Niall only shrugged his shoulders and kept eating. Stan and Harry both sat there quietly, both equally tired. They didn’t participate in the conversations at all, just tried to stay awake. “I hope you’ll be more awake in science mate, because I need someone to entertain me through the boring hell of a class.” Niall finished his four plate, before he stood up and left. The other lads figured it was a smart idea to get going for class, and they all parted ways. 

Harry waved goodbye as they arrived at Stan’s classroom, as Harry had history and Stan had English. He entered the classroom, where he spotted a seat next to the blue greenish eyed football jock. “Hi there Mr. Sleepy, you look like you just woke up from a year of sleeping.” Louis was only trying to be funny, but Stan only was able to answer with a small grin. Few seconds after, Mr. Bluebell entered the classroom. 

“Good morning everyone, I hope you enjoyed your weekend. I know lots of you might be a bit tired and it’s the first class of the week, and I will probably make you hate me now, but it’s time for the first presentations. Not everyone will be able to have their presentation today, but we’ll try to finish most of you.” SHIT, he totally forgot about the presentation. He did finish it last week though, but that was during that night he couldn’t sleep and he didn’t bring any notes. If he had luck, he wouldn’t need to have his presentation today.”

“So, because I’m really eager to hear our newest student’s topic, why don’t you Stan start us of? I think all of us really want to get to know you a bit more.” Of course he had to be first, why didn’t he expect this? Oh well, time to do what he always did – improvise. 

As he went up in front of the class, he didn’t really know what he was going to say, only that he was going to talk about football. So he started talking about where football originated from, how it had developed during the year and more random things he remembered as he went along. After 10 minutes he tried to wrap it up smoothly, which he thought he did okay, he did improvise after all. 

Much to his surprise, everyone gave him a great applause, and Mr. Bluebell gave him loads of good feedback. “Wow, that was really good. It looked like you have rehearsed a lot and done such good research, well done. You’ll get your grade after class, as everyone else that will do their presentation today. Okay, Matt you’re up next”. Stan took his seat, very happy that he nailed another improvised presentation. He had did this for the last year now, really getting the hang of it. 

After the class ended, which was just a bunch of standard and crappy presentations, he was going to get his grade. As he was the first to give his presentation, he was the first to get his grade. Mr. Bluebell looked a bit serious before he started to talk: “You really impressed me. I really do understand why you had A+ in English at your old school, but really, as any standards this was perfection. I would not have thought you were from a non-English speaking country, you’re accent is really good, you use words that nobody knows and just seemed comfortable in front of people. It’s like you were having a conversation with your best friend about what you ate for dinner, but it wasn’t. I have nothing more to say, this is the easiest A+ I ever have given. I will recommend that you don’t need those extra classes of English for foreign students. Congratulations!”

Stan only looked shocked, smiled and thanked Mr. Bluebell for the great mark. Outside the classroom one Mr. Tomlinson was waiting with a grin on his mouth. “You are such a school freak. Let me guess, you got top grade right?” Stan only grinned back at him. “Congrats, this gotta be the first time you had right!” Louis punched him in the shoulders with adding a “jerk”. “You were amazing, I was shocked. Anyway, I guess we have to head to our next classes, so I see you later. OH yeah, btw, Mr. Orwell said it would be an extra training session today at 5, so see you then!”. 

Great, he really didn’t want to do anything today, especially not physically activity. Hopefully he would feel better throughout the day, and he was so happy that he didn’t struggle with school, so he could relax. 

Science class with Niall went quite quick, and once again the students who finished the tasks they were given in math was able to leave early. This week Stan sat with Harry, Liam and Harry, as Jaymi was absent, and they all finished really quick. When the time was 1:15 PM Harry and Stan were laying in their beds. The reality of the people who still sat in class for another two hours with math pleased them. They agreed to take a power nap, and set the alarm clock to ring so Stan wouldn’t miss practice. This day was not that crappy after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo this time it didn't take as long time as the last time ahha I'm still sorry for making you wait so much. I just felt like I lost the feeling about the story, so I read it through and now I have so many ideas. I hope you enjoy this, and I know it's a bit messy at times (with a few grammar and English errors but what the heck).


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm finally done with my tenth chapter, which means I'm done with 1/5 of the story. I hope you like it so far, and that you like this chapter, I'm actually liking it myself, and it's extra long! Please let me know what you think of the story and the chapter and all x
> 
> And what do you think about a guy writing a 1D/5SOS fanfic? :) I know I have never read a fanfic by a boy before, so I want to know what you think about that too!
> 
> ~if you want to talk to me or anything, hit me up at @Stian5SOS on twitter!

Stan really hated to wake up, so doing it twice in one day was the worst experience. But he really needed to get up so he could go to practice. They had practice twice a week on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but Mr. Gimwick wanted to have another practice session this week. So he grabbed his bag and headed towards the lockers. 

In the lockers there were maybe seven or eight people already, but he really didn’t know their names. They were all fourth, fifth or sixth graders, and he hadn’t learned any names from those grades. He knew one person, or he knew of, because he really didn’t know Louis that well. He wasn’t arrived yet, but Stan didn’t wait for him and headed out on the field. 

He just jogged a bit and did some tricks with the ball, only causing the older boys to give him some non-friendly glances. He just continued doing what he did, until Mr. Gimwick gathered all the boys short time after. Louis was by his side, looking really like a pro player. He had this sport band thingy in his hair, like he had seen many athletes had done before, and his whole body language just glowed. 

“So you all may be wondering why I called to an extra training session today. As some of you may already know, we have our first game of the season this Friday and I feel we could get a bit extra preparations done before that. We are meeting Westbroad High School, who came to the semi finals last year. It’s gonna be a hard game, but I have confident that you will deliver a great match and that you got more than just a shot to win.” 

Shit. He hadn’t thought about that they would meeting other schools and stuff, and that in front of a big crowd. He wouldn’t start the game, maybe not even play at all, he was just a year three student who just moved here and just started on the team. So okay, he wasn’t that worried to be honest. 

The practice went by, Louis leading many of the sections. Stan couldn’t do anything but notice that almost every single other player on the team was not happy about being told what to do from a younger lad. They did do it though, because they knew how Mr. Gimwick would react if they didn’t. 

There was especially this one guy that wasn’t happy at all about being told what to do from Louis. His name was Jessie and was a sixth grader. From what Stan could understand, he had wanted to be the captain, but was “not going to bring the team together in tough situations” – or at least according to their coach. 

After one and half an hour later they were done, making everyone heading towards the showers. Stan was quite exhausted, but was very grateful that he had done this Geography homework last week, and that he didn’t need to study for the test tomorrow. 

“You were great today mate”. A familiar voice with just as familiar blue ocean sparkling eyes got Stan’s attention. Louis was once again waiting outside the locker rooms. “Oh thanks, but we have a brilliant captain. Are you waiting on someone or what?” He regretted saying that in the second it left his mouth, so he tried to switch the subject. 

“Silly you, I’m waiting for you. I was going up to “my room” to watch a movie, and I was wondering if you wanted to join”. Louis just grinned as always, which seemed to be the usual face expression the Donny lad wore. Stan smiled and nodded and they went up to this secret room of his, which still seemed unreal for him. How could the teachers not know about it, and it had been there for almost ten years already? 

They watched a movie called The Perks of Being A Wallflower, which Stan thought had to be his new favourite movie. He had tried his best, but he could not help but cry, which made him a bit embarrassed. Louis had told him it was okay, and he really meant it, or at least he thought so, after all the other boy did cry himself. That shocked the Norwegian boy, but he did really like the fact that Louis wasn’t afraid to show emotions, or at least while watching a sad movie.

When he came back to his room, Harry was actually studying. “Where the hell have you been? I refuse to believe that the practice went on for almost five hours. And why did you have a practice today anyway?”

“Uhm I was with Louis after practice.” He said it in a mumbling way, knowing that most of his friends didn’t really trust Louis or weren’t that fond of him. Harry raised an eyebrow, but before he managed to speak, Stan added “We have our first game this Friday, so he felt we needed some more preparations.” Harry only replied with an “oh” and continued to read. 

Stan was laying in his bed, just going through his social media, even though he should have studied at least a bit and it was almost 11 P.M. Harry finally looked up after half an hour with total silence. “Aren’t you going to study for the test? Geography is so much information and stuff.” 

“Nah I don’t feel like it, and it’s something I already know so much about, I can probably improvise it” he smirked to mark that he wasn’t being cocky or anything. Harry only chuckled, he knew the other lad was joking, but meant what he said. He was a genius or something, he had proven to be a smart ass kid so far. Soon after they both were asleep, tired of a long first day of the week.  
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The rest of the week went quickly by, even though it seemed like the teachers had decided to make it extra crappy. Tuesday was okay, even they had their Geography test, where everyone felt they failed. Stan felt he did okay, but not his best. They had music once again, where they had to pick a song in groups of six or seven people. He had been picked to be in group with Louis along with four girls. 

Wednesday was a very long and exhausting day, with P.E in the first class and boring subjects as history, science and Spanish. They had another test this day, once again without Stan studying, it was only Spanish after all. It was his fourth year taking Spanish, when it was only the second to everyone else. On top of a boring, long day, he had this extra English class (which was so unnecessary and boring) and then football practice. He had collapsed in his bed and slept till the next morning when he returned from the locker rooms.

Thursday was kind of okay, with classes like media, English and drama. He had P.E and Geography too, but all these subjects were ones he liked or not disliked. He did have another practice at the end of the day, which went on for half an hour longer than usual since they had their game on Friday. 

Friday was also okay, even though it had socio and math, but he had music in the last class of the day, which was very relaxing to finish a week with. However he did have this extra English class for another forty-five minutes at the end of the day, but Mr. Indigo called him to his desk in the middle of the class. “I’ve spoken to Mr. Bluebell who says you’re outstanding in English, and I agree. We spoke to the headmaster, Ms. Hornet, and this is the last class you will have to attend with us.” YES, perfect. 

When he walked towards the cafeteria, where he had agreed to meet up with the others when he was done with his class, he stopped up for a bit. He hadn’t noticed it until now, but the hallways were propped with posters and flags and all kind of stuff to support the football team. He knew the football team was popular, but not anything like this. 

“So you’re on the football team ey? I thought you were a coward since you quitted back home.” Stan’s eyes widen as he realised who had stopped by his side. “Yes I am and you don’t know a shit about why I quitted in the first place.” Marcus only smirked even more, probably because he knew he got Stan worked up. 

Stan was not about to let this jerk mess his head even more up, so he just walked away making Marcus to stumble, as he did not expect it. He grabbed some food and joined up with his friends, everyone buzzing about Stan being on the team and how excited they were about the game. 

“I just can’t believe we’re friends with someone on the football team” Luke was really excited, and Ashton joined in on the excitement. “Are you starting the match or what?” Stan just told them nobody knew the starting line up, but that he probably wouldn’t start. “I still think it’s great, we will be cheering for you from the bleachers!” Liam also joining the convo. 

They all continued to talk about the game, and Stan started to understand that it was a really big deal, like even more than he ever could imagine. He started to feel a bit nervous, but then he reminded himself that he probably wouldn’t play at all. So he just finished eating and left for the loo as usual when he ate. 

When he looked at the time, he suddenly realised it was only ten minutes till they was supposed to be in the locker room, so he hurried up to his room to grab his bag. He entered the locker rooms a few minutes before Coach Gimwick came in. He asked if they were ready and that the bleachers were already starting to get filled up. Wow, football was really popular, out of his imagination. 

When they entered the field, wearing their team kit, which was red and white shirts and black shorts, people started to cheer. It was still a good forty minutes left ‘till the game started, and they all started to get really pumped up. Stan looked up in the crowd, and he spotted the whole gang. Liam and Malin sitting next to each other, with Marina on the other side of Malin. Calum sat next to her, with Ashton, Luke, Harry and everyone in the gang. He smiled, even though they probably would have been there regardless of Stan being on the team or not.

Coach Gimwick gathered them all “okay, it’s only a few minutes left. Jackson in goal, Leon, Mark in the mid defence with Lucas and Mike on the side. Louis and Jessie you’re the midfielders with Josh and Tyson on the wings. On top we have Simon and Nick.” As he suspected, he was not going to start the match and probably just sit on the bench for the whole game. Each team only had three subs, and there were six other lads in addition to Stan who was on the bench. 

The game was kicked off by the Westbroad team, who wore all black kits with only a golden stripe over their chest region. It was a tight game, and not many chances were produced. Louis did some so home out there with his captain’s band, and with the ball in his feet. Stan just ended up admiring his captain, he was so elegant and comfortable with the ball and did not any mistakes. He was like a dancer, because of the smooth movements he did with player after player trying stop him. They never did though. 

Right before halftime, on overtime Simon was tackled very bad. They received a free kick, but Simon had to be brought of field by the medical staff. The free kick ended up in nothing but a throw in, the referee blew his whistle to mark halftime. 

“Okay, great job out there lads, very good defence. We need to let the ball move faster and try to turn the game from side to side much more, that will lead to more room for our wings. Simon in not able to continue, so Stan you’re taking his place on top.” Say what now. Wait. WHAT. Stan’s eyes widened in panic when he realised he was going to play, and that in front of so many people. Back home it was very few in the crowd, mostly the parents and maybe some friends or siblings, but not more than twenty five people. Today he was going to play in front of more than thousand people, as almost every single student and teacher were in the stands. Okay, he was going to screw up and make the team lose and everything. 

“Stan, are you okay?” Mr. Gimwick looked a bit concerned. “Yeah, I’m just nervous.” Mr. Gimwick only chuckled and smiled while giving him a little confidence clap on his back. “You have nothing to be nervous for, you’re one of a kind and I was planning on saving you till a bit later in the game, but I think you can make the difference for the rest of the team. Just do what you do best, and you’ll be bloody great!” Stan smiled to his coach, but he wasn’t totally convinced yet. 

They all headed out to the field, with Stan being the last one due to his nervousness. Right outside the locker room Mr. Captain himself waited as he had done a couple of times already. “Are you excited? This is going to be great, two year three students at the same time in the debut game!” Louis only received a concerned look with a smile, or at least something that was supposed to be a smile. 

“Are you alright, you look really worried?” Louis asked. Stan couldn’t help but to cry and start panic. “I’m not good enough, I’m going to mess everything up and we will lose because of me. AND EVERYONE IN THE SCHOOL WILL SEE IT.” Louis looked really confused and concerned on him, probably because the game was starting in a few moments. 

“Stan listen up. You’re amazingly good, better than all of us and you’re going to be fine. I have never seen anyone with your talent, I know you will help us to victory.” Stan only continued with the panicking and the tears did not seem to stop. “I’m just so, I don’t even know why I said yes to play and” before he was able to finish that sentence, he was silenced by the other lad’s lips on his. He was caught off guard, and he didn’t quite understand what was happening, but it felt really good and it felt right. 

After a few seconds, Louis pulled away and they both breathed heavenly. Louis looked shocked by what he just did, and Stan was probably looking even more shocked. “Uhm… I… I don’t know… uhm… I’m sorry.” Louis looked like he just had seen a ghost. “Louis, don’t say sorry. I… uhm… thank you, I’m fine now. Shall we go, I think they are looking for us.” The British bloke only nodded to him, and they headed to the fields.

“We have a substitute coming on for number 16, Simon Linwell as he his temporarily not able to continue the game. The new forwarder is number 25, Stan Lindberg, one of our newest student, all the way from Norway.” The crowd was applauding for both Simon and Stan as the speaker announced the sub. 

The game was once again under way, and the match seemed to continue in the pace from the first half. After about sixty minutes or so, Louis received the ball and headed towards the goal. He passed to Stan, who tried his luck and challenged one of the defenders. He got pass him, then faked a shot making both the other defender and the keeper to go the wrong way. He simply shot the ball into the left corner in the net, which now was a simple task. Few seconds later, he was on the ground with almost his whole team on top of him. 

It took him some seconds to realize he just had scored a goal and that everyone was cheering his name. Wow, this was unusual; he had never had anyone cheering for him like this, not even his parents or friends. Now over one thousand people did it, and it felt amazing. Then he met with Louis’ eyes, and it was like sparks flew between them. 

After the goal, Westbroad tried to be more offensive to equalise, which left more space to counter attack. At the end of the game, it was a crushing victory for Eastern Sherwood with a 5-1 on the result board. Stan ended up scoring two another goals completing a true hat trick, and he had the assists to Louis and Nick who scored a goal each. When the final whistle came, he could see Liam and Malin snogging each other, right on each other temples. He knew it. 

Much to Stan’s surprise, even though he scored three goals, he was awarded the MM (man of the match). He only played one half and so many other players did such an amazing job in defence who gave him the chance to score. The team got a standing ovation and tons of cheers from the crowd. 

The locker room was filled with screaming lads in pure happiness and Mr. Gimwick even yelled “WE’RE GOING TO WIN THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR”. Everyone was so happy, and almost everyone was giving Stan high fives and bro fists. Not Jessie, he just was silent the whole time and was the first to leave. Stan only shrugged it off, he couldn’t understand what his problem was. 

When he exited the locker rooms, he was met once again with cheers, but a much less noisy one. The gang was all waiting for him to congratulate him, with Ashton being the first one to running in for a hug. Malin and Liam held hands and just kept smiling, with a little blush in their cheek. They looked so cute together, just as Stan knew they would.

Everyone took their turn to hug him, and when it was Liam’s turn Stan whispered in his ear “nice kissing mate”. Liam blushed even more and so did Malin when Stan whispered “I told you he liked you”. Though he noticed Luke being very quiet, and he kept looking their way, and Stan knew what was going on.  
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Stan and Harry were sitting in their room, trying to calm down after the event that just had made this day amazing. They were expecting Luke and Ashton to come to visit. Stan had really started to like to hang out with them, as well as Calum and Michael. They were all in year four, but that didn’t matter at all. Calum was “hanging” with Marina, just like Liam and Malin “we’re only going to hang”. Michael had plans with Josh, so neither could come. 

Soon after they both entered the room, but it didn’t go long until someone knocked on the door again. Harry went to open it, but Stan couldn’t see who had knocked. It was something wrong or odd with Harry’s body language, but he couldn’t figure out why. Then Harry turned around and said “Stan, someone’s here to see you.” 

Stan stood up from his bed and went to door. Much to his surprise, he was met by some familiar, sparkling ocean blue eyes. “Hi Stan. Would you mind coming with me for a bit?” Stan froze a bit, as he hadn’t totally thought about what happened right before the second half. He had been kissed by Louis. Kissed. By Louis. That sounded so weird in his head. He had never been kissed before, and he did not expect to be kissed anytime soon. Especially by a popular kid, and defiantly not by another boy. 

When they entered Louis’ room, which he still was sharing with no one but himself, they just sat next to each other in Louis’ bed. They didn’t say a word, because what was they going to say? “I’m sorry I kissed you” or “Why did you kiss me?” would be so awkward and direct. After maybe ten minutes of silence Louis finally spoke “you were great today.” Stan looked at him, and he did not why or what was going on with him, but he had the urge to kiss the other boy. Being near him made him feel something he never had felt before, and he didn’t know what was going on. He was not gay, or he didn’t think he was, and Louis wasn’t gay either, he liked girls right? 

Before Stan even was able to understand what Louis just had said, and figure out what to answer, he was once again met by the other boy’s lips. This time he didn’t try to pull away, like he kind of had tried the first time. No, this time he kissed back. It felt so incredibly good, and it felt so right. He had no idea why, he wasn’t supposed to like kissing another lad, but he did. Why Louis did kiss him was a mystery, maybe it just was pure lust and he didn’t care of the gender he kissed, he just needed to kiss someone. Probably, but right now he didn’t care.

Stan worked his way down to Louis’ neck, kissing on it and sucking on his collarbone. The other boy moaned, which was very unreal that Stan could cause Louis or any other human to do. After a few moments, Louis made them swap place so he could be on top and in control. They kept on going for what felt like forever, until they finally pulled from each other, both trying to catch their breath. 

“That was… interesting.” Louis said after a while. Stan only turned his head to look at the other boy, and stared him in the eyes. “Yeah, you can say that.” No other words were spoken that evening, as they just laid in Louis’ bed next to each other. Stan had his head on Louis’ bare chest, and stared on the ceiling. It was totally quiet, but not awkward at all, it felt comfortable. He realized they both were only in their boxers, as they almost ripped the clothes off each other. Louis was running his fingers through the Norwegian bloke’s hair, which was so relaxing and amazing that he soon was out like a light.


End file.
